Brunswick continues debate on Flock Safety Cameras

BRUNSWICK — The public should soon have access to the city of Brunswick's records related to Flock Safety cameras. Brunswick City Council discussed Flock at Monday's meeting. Ward 4 Councilman Keith Kuczma said Police Chief Robert Safran showed him the entire Flock system, including how it works, what pictures it takes, how to access it, and the authentication process. "I was also able to do a ride-along with the officers to see how it's implemented out in the street," he said. "If there was a car that hit a Flock that had an outstanding warrant or something, then it would show up." Lt. Steve Hoover said if the plate is not flagged in the system with an active warrant, missing person or some other reason, it is just another photo in the database that leaves Brunswick's system after 30 days. Ward 3 Councilman Nate Witsaman expressed concerns about the photos potentially staying with Flock, the company, for longer periods. "It's not automatically going through the Ohio law enforcement automated data system or the Ohio law enforcement gateway where you're getting who's driving the vehicle, their age, their date of birth, their social, their address, all that information," Hoover said. "It's simply a photograph with the make, model and color." Law Director Dennis Nevar said the city has been working on setting up a SharePoint file that would give the public access to records related to Flock in Brunswick. He estimates the SharePoint should go live in a few days barring any technical issues. The SharePoint will feature organizational audits, which will be done monthly and be reviewed internally by the Brunswick Division of Police to determine if anything out of the ordinary is happening, he said. "If so, there'll be a referral for investigation and ultimately a determination as to whether there's an issue, and you need to keep going through the investigation process or it's all clear," Nevar said. "Certainly in the event there is an investigation, that would be an active police investigation, and that would not be a public record until such time as that investigation has been completed." The city's contract documents with Flock and the city's automatic license plate reader policy will be on the website, he said. There will also be an internal users list that shows who is authorized to access the system and event logs. "You may have a situation where you have an officer, and it would look like they're running the same plate 20 times," Hoover said. "We type that plate, put it in the search and nothing hits in the city. It's not just going to run in the background, so we have to hit again." Vice Mayor Nick Hanek said the city will not tolerate anyone using the Flock cameras for personal use. "After this policy launches and everybody has time to digest it and think about it, I would like to see this come back," he said. "I'd like to have a further discussion. I'd like to see where this goes. I'd like to see what everybody thinks and see what the public thinks." Brunswick resident Michael Getz said his concern with Flock cameras is not police using the technology but rather the technology itself. "I like living in this country, and I like the freedoms that we have," he said. "I have a real problem with some of the nation states that are trying to attack this country, namely China, namely Iran. These threat actors want to get into these cameras so they can see what goes on in our American life." Brunswick resident Jennifer Arida expressed concerns that the cameras could be used to identify and track people and urged the city to "protect our privacy and constitutional rights." "We are called private citizens, which means you have no right to record and store the things that we are up to without obtaining a warrant first," she said. "Don't be mad at me because I'm not the one who made the rules. You can be mad at Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams and all of our founding fathers who wrote the Constitution." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at 330-721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.