Lowell city council votes to reinstate Flock cameras for police surveillance

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Recently released minutes from a closed meeting of the Lowell city council shows councilors voted heavily in favor of reinstating the police department’s use of Flock automated…

Recently released minutes from a closed meeting of the Lowell city council shows councilors voted heavily in favor of reinstating the police department’s use of Flock automated license plate reader cameras in October, less than two weeks after the council voted to suspend the program.

During it’s Oct. 6 meeting, the city council entered an executive session to discuss, among other topics, the use of Flock cameras in the city. The technology has become a controversial public safety tool across the country, facing pushback over concerns about privacy violations, unconstitutional mass surveillance, and misuse by law enforcement officers.

The councilors in Lowell voted 8-1 to authorize police to resume using the cameras without sharing data. Councilor Sean McDonough cast the lone dissenting vote and “stressed that [the] vote should have been in public session,” according to the minutes.

During the discussion, Lowell Police Superintendent Greg Hudon and other police officials defended the cameras as an important investigative tool. They said the city has 47 cameras with a 30-day retention period, according to the meeting minutes.

Several councilors raised concerns about privacy and data sharing, including Councilor Vesna Nuon, who questioned whether Flock data could be used by federal immigration enforcement agents, according to the minutes.

A spokesperson for the Lowell police department and city hall had no comment Wednesday.

The decision to reinstate the cameras followed a previous decision by the council at it’s Sept. 22 meeting, where the members voted 6-5 in favor of suspending the use of Flock cameras while gathering more information about the technology and its data-auditing process.

At the September meeting, Councilor Kimberly Scott said she was concerned by recent news that Flock Safety had allowed Boston’s license plate data to be accessed by outside law enforcement agencies during a pilot last year, which was against the city’s wishes.

“I applaud some of the crimes…

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