The Johns Creek City Council has become the latest city to let police have limited access to neighborhood and home cameras – another example of how cops are tapping into private surveillance systems to fight crime.
Before voting Tuesday, council members touched on a wide range of topics, from the Founding Fathers’s vision for America to the premise of a Tom Cruise science fiction movie.
What city leaders approved is memorandums of understanding with two companies, Flock and Ring. The deals give police quicker access to the private cameras paid for by residents. Ring, an Amazon-owned company, sells doorbell cameras and that deal was quickly approved by council members. It got tense when council members discussed the deal with Atlanta-based Flock, which sells license-plate reading cameras to neighborhoods and homeowner associations.
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When voting Tuesday, three councilmen immediately raised their hands to approve the Flock agreement, but Councilman Chris Coughlin paused for about four seconds, appearing to think hard before slowly lifting his hand to create a majority vote. Council members Stephanie Endres and John Bradberry voted against the deal, saying they were worried the cameras could infringe on the privacy of residents.
Johns Creek’s debate over privacy concerns is the same conversation cities throughout metro Atlanta and the country are having as elected leaders weigh the value of empowering police versus the specter of a surveillance state.
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Credit: undefined
There are already 17 Flock cameras in the city, but what the City Council approved Tuesday gives police faster and broader access to the cameras for those who opt in. For example, cities who have a deal with Flock can automatically get an alert whenever a camera spots a stolen vehicle or a vehicle whose owner has an active arrest warrant. The solar-powered, motion-activated cameras record each car as it enters a subdivision, and the system knows which vehicles belong to residents.
Johns Creek Police Chief Ed Densmore said multiple HOAs asked him approach City Council about tapping into their cameras. He said it would help solve some of the most common and difficult crimes his department faces.
“What I’m tasked with is the crime that gets reported, (the type) that drives our crime stats is property crimes – it’s entering autos and it’s burglaries. And those are virtually impossible to solve without some other clues,” Densmore said.
The deal lasts for five years, comes at no cost to the city, and starts immediately, which Densmore said is good timing.
“We’re getting into a certain part of the holiday season and we’re going to have some home invasions that occur, I guarantee it. But our one way to combat that is if we get some information on that, we might be able to track that car when it comes into a neighborhood to commit that crime. So if it saves one family, I think it’s worth the unknown or unintended consequences of what may happen.”
Credit: Casey Sykes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Casey Sykes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flock CEO Garrett Langley attended the meeting and said his company’s cameras stretch from College Park to Sandy Springs and out to Duluth, and have been instrumental in solving crimes.
Sandy Springs police in July credited Flock with helping them arrest a man who allegedly stole packages and mail from homes.
Councilwoman Endres said reducing crime is important, but in this case, privacy concerns outweigh the potential of a lower crime rate.
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Speaking to Chief Densmore, she said: “I’m not trying to handcuff you, but there’s something that just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Endres compared the Flock system to the 2002 thriller "Minority Report" in which Tom Cruise uses predictive technology to arrest people for crimes before they commit them.
“I’m struggling with the things we’re not thinking about with some of these AI (issues). That concerns me that your system is in essence setting itself up as a Minority Report. I get that everybody may be doing it, but that doesn’t mean it’s right,” Endres said.
Langley tried to shut that down. “We don’t predict crime at all. What we do is solve crime,” he said, adding that council members need to be careful about the image they’re sending.
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“The headlines won’t read (that) you’re protecting privacy, the headlines are that we’re implementing a policy that doesn’t protect the community,” he said.
Councilman Lin summed up his concerns.
"I think we're forced to make a decision in this imperfect world," he said. "There will be some sacrifices on privacy for residents, but I think a sure thing is that we could achieve crime reduction in the city."
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