Flock Cameras, Municipal Surveillance, and Privacy

July 19
30 mins

Episode Description

WMPG-FM. Univ of So. Maine - Weekly - Mondays - 1:00 PM
Producer & Host:  Richard Rudolph, PhD.


The program is an interview of David Boyer who represents Mechanic Falls and part of Poland, ME. in the Maine State Legislature.  He serves on the joint committees on veteran and legal affairs. He talked about why he plans to submit a bill to the Maine Legislature which would ban municipal and police use of automated license plate readers such as Flock  Cameras - statewide, with an exception for toll collection.  He believes these cameras are a significant threat to our constitutional rights to privacy.  The camera data is frequently shared across vast, interconnected networks of thousands of law enforcement agencies and out-of-state entities often without local community consent.  He pointed out this technology captures data on every single driver-not just suspects which creates opportunities for rogue officers and bad actors to illegally stalk or monitor without probable cause or a warrant.  He pointed out that the ACLU has documented instances of local authorities using Flock networks on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assist with deportations, as well as tracking drivers crossing state lines to access reproductive healthcare.
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