Syracuse lawmakers have begun breaking ties with a security camera company, over concerns about privacy. The city has had a deal with Flock Safety to provide license plate readers across the city since 2023. But privacy concerns led to a unanimous vote from Common Councilors Monday to revoke permission for Syracuse University to install several of the cameras on city property.
Councilor Jimmy Monto said he’s concerned about Flock’s ability to collect personal data and allow it to be available on a national database for anyone to see, something he said should be unacceptable in this day and age.
"We have vans of federal agents pulling up and zip-tying people and throwing them in the back of the van and throwing due process aside, and I think we need to be very careful about surveillance,” Monto said.
While the Council revoked SU’s access to use the cameras on city property, it held a vote to revoke access for all the cameras.
“Flock has 13 other cameras in our right of ways throughout the city, not throughout the whole city, in parts of the city,” said Monto. “The contract was for 26, they only installed 13 of those. So, the other piece of legislation which we held would revoke that permission."
Monto said the city will wait for the Syracuse Police Department to find another camera company before making a move. The issue with Flock according to Monto, is it’s a private, for-profit surveillance company, that makes surveillance results public.
“These readers don't discern between a criminal in a criminal action versus someone driving to a clinic or driving to a union meeting or driving to simply go home,” he said.
Monto said he’d like the police department to find a new vendor quickly, in order to end the relationship with Flock.
