I wanted to include this note for anyone reading the information in this report.

The information contained in this report is meant to be as factual and free of bias as possible, however reality is some form of it will always find its way into the mix.

So, I offer this information as a way of informing the reader. What my personal stance is so that they can more easily take that into consideration while consuming the information provided and hopefully offset any bias that does make its way in.

While I am neither a first responder nor a member of law enforcement, I find myself in an interesting position when it comes to subject, the of my day to day activities listening to the operations of both first responders and law enforcement within our county gives me more of an insight into the positive impact that the flock systems can have when used in their positive an intended ways.

This includes listening to the many local successes ranging from the location of missing individuals to the identification and arrest of wanted suspects. This also has allowed me to listen to our local agencies as they implement and execute their policies and procedures in real time.

Our location along Interstate 85 has a major influence on the amount of criminal activity in our county. Between crimes of opportunity like shoplifting at the numerous stores of the Newnan exit, and the number of criminals traveling through the area between Atlanta and Columbus, we find ourselves perfectly suited for the types of success the flock systems can provide in investigations and apprehension.

While I understand and respect, and in many instances agree with, the privacy and abuse concerns currently being vocalized by a majority of the country, I feel like there is a middle ground that mitigates many of the concerns while allowing the positive aspects to remain.

One of my biggest personal concerns is that the data collected is being held by a private company that has time and time again showing itself and its employees to not be the most trustworthy are transparent.

In the future I believe one of the necessary steps to move towards something more trustworthy is going to be moving this data to a centralized source that is maintained much like GCIC and NCIC by a regulated government agency.

As far as individual access to the data, I believe that a lot of the abuse we have seen can be mitigated by ensuring web access is constrained to a smaller group within agencies along with the same strict access and reporting systems that we see with the other systems as well as severe and mandatory penalties for any abuse that is identified.

The reality is not every officer in a department needs access to the flock system, reducing the number of individuals with access reduces the vectors for abuse. Specific changes to the user interface used to access the data can also help drastically reduce the ability to abuse the data. Many of us have heard that the current interface requires users to include a investigative note be it a case number or explanation as to why the particular tag number is being searched. It has been found that in a lot of cases this is being bypassed by entering a single letter or number or text that makes no sense and it is entered purely to circumvent its intended purpose. As someone that has designed many programs in their graphical user interfaces the fact that they have not instituted a systemic check to ensure that this data is meaningful or allowing individual agencies to require specific data for instance an agency requires that a case number that matches their formatting be entered before continuing the search is beyond me.

Of course, all of this means nothing if the Supreme Court decides the flux system, or automatic plate license reader systems as a whole are a violation of the constitution, specifically the 4th amendment.

I like everyone else I've seen the numerous articles around the Internet regarding flock, and it's supposed to be violation of the 4th amendment, with of these articles making declarative statements that it is. To date the Supreme Court has not made a finding specifically regarding the constitutionality of flock systems. Many of these articles are referencing a recent decision in a separate case that did not deal with flock systems but instead dealt with the constitutionality of law enforcement procuring cell phone data including location data without a warrant showing probable cause.

While there is certainly some overlap with the ideas, how the information is collected, how the information is stored and how the information is accessed are different enough that, assuming they would find one unconstitutional because of the other requires a high number of assumptions.

While it is very possible that a case will soon reach the Supreme Court that brings into question the flock systems it is quite possible that the court would find only certain aspects of the flock system to be in violation of the 4th amendment. For instance, they could quite easily determine that the operation of these flock cameras and the retention of the information much like a cell phone provider retaining location data within their private systems is not a violation however the use of are certain uses of this information by law enforcement does violate the 4th amendment.

In a situation like this I think what we will see is a push to tailor the system so that it operates in a means that does protect civil liberties while rolling for its use as an investigative tool perhaps this looks again like the cell phone data where in order to access the flock data law enforcement would have to procure a warrant after showing probable cause. While this would certainly impact on some of its usefulness by slowing down access to information it would still leave a great portion of its effectiveness.

This should give you a sufficient idea of my view regarding the topic at least enough to identify and negate any bias that might find its way into the information within this report. I am far from an expert on the subject matter, but I hope that the information contained in this report it gives everyone a clearer and more educated basis in which to form their opinions.

-- The Admin