The Union Township Board of Trustees, joined by Union Twp. Police Department officials, held a town hall the evening of Sept. 21 to discuss the township’s automated license plate reader program, or Flock, and prepare for new policies going forward.
The two-hour town hall started at 7 p.m. and included a general overview of the township’s current Flock program, delivered by Union Twp. Police Chief Anthony Rees, a short presentation from Flock’s Safety Senior Director of Public Affairs, Trevor Chandler, nearly 90-minutes of public comments, with each resident given up to three minutes to speak, and a time for trustee member comments.
At the start of the meeting, Union Twp. Trustee and Chairman Joe Dills apologized for not hosting a town hall on Flock cameras two years ago, when the township started using the automated license plate reader.
Then Rees shared an overview of the township’s history and policies for the program. Notably, it was started in 2014; the township has 20 leased Flock cameras in operation, information is stored for 30 days and Flock cannot access the township’s data without permission.
He also reviewed policy safeguards and transparency, which included that all department users are required to read and acknowledge, with a signature, the policy regarding use of the cameras and all are trained on the technology; officer queries can only be run from a department computer or in-car computer, random auditing takes place every month to ensure all officers are adhering to the policies, and the department controls what other police departments can access its network.
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