Athens town meeting concerning Flock cameras

Released by the Eric Gisler campaign :

State Rep. Eric Gisler (Dist.121) will hold a Town Hall meeting on Flock Cameras in Athens following allegations that a supervisor in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department used the Flock Camera system to track his ex-wife.

Nicholas James Barker, 33, a senior civilian crime analyst with the Athens-Clarke County Police and a supervisor for the Department’s Real Time Crime Center, was fired in August after a Department investigation into his ex-wife’s complaint that he was using the county’s Flock camera system to spy on her.

Barker has now been arrested and criminally charged.

Flock cameras are produced by Flock Safety, a Georgia-based company. The cameras capture images of vehicles and license plates and record them into searchable databases. Athens-Clarke County reportedly has deployed at least 114 cameras across the county.

Flock Safety specifies on its website that “access and permissions” to the data collected by the cameras “are determined by our partners, which include cities, police agencies, businesses, and neighborhoods.” However, there have been numerous cases across the nation where police officers and other individuals have abused their access to Flock system data for personal uses.

While supporters argue such cameras help police prevent and solve crimes, public opposition to Flock cameras is surging as their potential danger to privacy, individualsafety and civil liberties becomes clear.

State Rep. Eric Gisler’s Town Hall will include a panel of experts including a representative from the Athens Clarke County Police Department and an attorney specializing in Civil Rights to discuss questions such as ‘How Flock Cameras work, what data they collect, and how they are being used in Athens?,’ and to answer questions from the audience.

The Town Hall will be held Monday evening, Sept. 28,from 6-8 p.m. at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave, Athens, GA  30601