Stop Surveillance Overreach

To: Elkton VA Town Council 

Subject: Petition to Remove Flock Safety Surveillance Cameras

We, the undersigned residents and taxpayers of Elkton, demand the immediate removal of Flock Safety license plate reader (ALPR) cameras and a halt to any future deployment of this surveillance technology.
Our community is being turned into a high-tech dragnet without public debate or consent. These cameras track our movements—where we work, worship, protest, and visit healthcare providers—and store this information in a privately owned, national database without a warrant.
We believe the presence of these cameras:
• Violates our 4th Amendment rights to be secure in our persons and effects.
• Creates a dystopian surveillance environment that treats innocent residents as suspects.
• Risks data abuse, including tracking by unauthorized personnel or private actors.
We call on the members of the Elkton Town Council to prioritize our right to privacy over the profit-driven technologies of private surveillance companies.

Reason We Are Against Flock Cameras
• Mass Surveillance Without Warrant: Flock cameras create a detailed map of private lives, storing vehicle data, tags, and even characteristics like bumper stickers, in a national database accessible to law enforcement without a warrant.
• Erosion of Privacy: These cameras create an "open-air prison" environment, allowing for tracking of individuals based on political beliefs or lawful protest, violating 4th Amendment protections.
• Misuse and Stalking Concerns: Data collected by these cameras is public record in many cities, making it requestable by anyone. There are concerns regarding public servants using this data to track exes or innocent residents, as well as ICE using it to bypass local restrictions.
• No Clear Evidence of Efficacy: There is little evidence that ALPR systems actually reduce crime; they mostly catch low-level theft, often misidentifying plates up to \(10\%\) of the time, resulting in traumatic, unjustified stops of innocent citizens.
• No Local Control: Flock creates a nationwide network, meaning local police are connected to a massive data pool that is not subject to sufficient local oversight.
• Unsecure Data & Vulnerabilities: Research indicates that some Flock camera admin panels have been found, using only search engines, to have accessible live feeds and stored data, exposing location records to the public.

Supporting Evidence and Context
• ACLU Concerns: The ACLU urges the termination of city contracts, citing that these cameras facilitate surveillance overreach.
• Examples of Misuse: Some residents have reported that the cameras can be abused by officials to track people for personal reasons.
• Alternative Solutions: Investing in community-based strategies and social programs rather than tech-driven surveillance.