The Pekin City Council on Monday delayed a decision on whether the city should renew its annual contract with Flock Safety for 54 license plate reading cameras.
After hearing from a dozen opponents of Flock cameras during public comment and holding their own lengthy discussion with Police Chief Seth Ranney and his predecessor, City Manager John Dossey, the council voted unanimously to table the issue until its next meeting Aug. 24.
Council members said they want to gather more information on what's suddenly become a hot issue across the country.
They also said they want to hear from more constituents after getting little or no feedback on the cameras until the past few days, even though Pekin has had the cameras in place for three years.
The cameras have been paid for each year by a four-year state anti-vehicle theft grant. The council unanimously approved the grant and each renewal.
Pekin received $173,900 from the state last week for the final year of the grant.
Ranney said in his nearly three years as police chief, his department hasn't gotten one complaint from residents about the cameras.
Council member Dave Nutter responded, "they must be working right if we haven't heard about them."
Public speakers at Monday's meeting leveled several criticisms at the nationwide network of Flock Safety cameras, calling what they do a violation of Fourth Amendment rights with a purpose of surveillance over safety, and comparing them to the dictatorial "Big Brother" government depicted by George Orwell in his classic book, "1984."
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects U.S. citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures."
"Public safety matters," said Pekin resident Greg Hansen. "But so do constitutional rights, privacy and accountable government. We should not have to sacrifice one to obtain the other."
Ranney said the purpose of the cameras in Pekin is to "assist our citizens and businesses in preserving life, preventing crimes, investigating crimes, solving crimes, and holding those responsible for crimes accountable for their actions.
"As with all tools utilized by the police department, we'll continue to monitor and evaluate our usage of the Flock program to make sure it aligns with our mission," he said.
Ranney said Flock cameras have been placed facing the street on public property at major intersections and border areas in Pekin. Each camera had to be permitted by the state.
The cameras are motion-activated and designed to collect certain information.
"Our LPR's [license plate readers] detect license plates and vehicle description information," Ranney said. "They don't detect facial recognition, occupant identities, gender or race.
"They also don't monitor vehicle speed and do not access private information about the registered owner of the vehicle."
In other words, Ranney said, the cameras gather "vehicle data that would have been visible to anyone traveling on the public roadway when the information was collected."
The information the cameras gather is permanently deleted from the entire Flock system after 30 days, Ranney said.
Ranney also said there's been no evidence the Georgia-based company has shared any of the data gathered in Pekin.
"There have been instances where other police departments across the country have shared their information with federal agencies, but those decisions were made by the police departments, not Flock," he said.
Ranney and public speakers each provided anecdotal evidence to support their points of view.
Pekin police were able to solve a hit-and-run accident that killed two people and a drive-by shooting thanks to the cameras, according to Ranney.
More recently, a missing suicidal person was located and a teenage girl taken from her home was tracked to Chicago, where a male suspect was arrested by U.S. marshals and Chicago police officers.
Several public speakers noted a North Carolina police officer was arrested last week for allegedly using Flock cameras to track her boyfriend's ex-wife.
An audit by the Mooresville, N.C., Police Department showed the accused officer accessed the Flock system 31 times for personal use, including when she was off-duty.
Last year, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that his office discovered Flock gave access to Illinois license plate data to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, breaking a state law. Giannoulias demanded that Flock discontinue the practice, which it did.
Evanston and Oak Park have deactivated their Flock cameras, several Wisconsin communities have ended their contracts with the company, and Flock cameras in Dayton, Ohio were covered up by the city, according to recent news reports.
But in June, Glenview renewed its contract for 25 Flock cameras for five years at a cost of $412,500.
After the state grant runs out at this time next year, Ranney said, he'll take a look at the Flock system and see if it works for Pekin.
