APD attempts to allay Flock camera concerns but issues remain

According to the Appleton Police Department, the Flock Camera pilot program put in place nearly four years ago is doing its job and doing it well.

An APD presentation at a Safety and License Committee meeting earlier this month highlighted the system’s advantages, from cost-efficiency to crime solving to freeing up officers to spend more time on the street policing neighborhoods. At the same time, APD tried to mollify concerns over privacy issues and the potential for the cameras’ misuse and abuse.

Flock Cameras (Flock is the brand name) are placed at various spots around the city to capture license plate data and vehicle descriptors that can later be used to identify and locate vehicles whose operators are involved in suspected crimes, from hits-and-run, domestic violence, burglary and theft, among others.

The pilot program in Appleton went into effect in May of 2022 with 29 fixed cameras t. APD pointed to more than 180 positive outcomes over the first 15 months of the program from its inception to the end of its first trial period in July 2023. Those included the solving of 30 hit-and-run cases, 22 retail thefts and five domestic violence incidents. They also recovered 30 stolen vehicles through the system.

The system was free to the city on a trial basis by Flock and Appleton committed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to retain 19 fixed cameras and one mobile unit after the pilot program ended in July of 2023.

But an incident last fall reveals opportunities for abuse. Menasha Police Officer Christian Morales is alleged to have searched the Appleton Flock Camera files seven times in October to locate his ex-girlfriend, using a “welfare” check as his rationale. He was off duty at the time. 

Incident raises alarms

Morales admitted to the act, claiming bad judgement and lack of sleep. He was put on leave pending an investigation.

That case, along with the program’s policy of sharing information with other government agencies and municipalities, has Appleton alders concerned. Alder Denise Fenton, according to her weekly constituent newsletter, asked APD Chief Polly Olson to address specific concerns, including:

• What is required for an officer to access Flock camera data? Is a case number required?
• What is the audit procedure to ensure that the data is for a valid law enforcement purpose?
• Is the application available on personal devices? News reporting indicates that the Menasha officer accessed the data using his personal phone at home.
• What is the data retention policy for camera data?
• What are the policies regarding data sharing? What agencies have access to data from cameras located within the City of Appleton?

While the APD presentation covered a lot of these concerns, not everyone on the council was fully satisfied. 

“What I came away with from the meeting is that the Appleton Police Department has pretty robust policies and procedures around the use of Flock camera data, and that APD has already modified some of those policies to tighten controls over this data,” said Fenton, whose career was in information technology. “I remain concerned that, while a case number is required, there is not a cross check that it is a valid case number. 

“There would definitely be work required to integrate the Flock database with APD’s internal system, but my IT brain tells me it’s certainly doable. I also have concerns about other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies who have access to Appleton’s Flock data and if their use would be subject to the same controls as APD has internally.”

Violation of Fourth Amendment?

More generally, the American Civil Liberties Union considers searchable histories of every vehicle to constitute a “warrantless search. They also cite what’s known as the “mosaic theory,” which suggests that the aggregation of weeks of location data can reveal such details of a citizen’s life as doctor visits, places of worship or attendance at political rallies. This, they contend, is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. 

Council President Katie Van Zeeland came away from the presentation feeling better about certain updates APD has made, especially regarding privacy and civil rights issues. She cited in a recent social media post such things as the revoking of sharing privileges with other municipalities and agencies if data is misused; the prohibition of camera use at public gatherings; an increase to quarterly system audits; and council access to those audits.

“Chief Olson remains committed to listening and making changes to ensure we have the benefits of this tool without violating the privacy of our citizens, and this meeting was just a jumping off point,” Van Zeeland said. “Alderpersons have been offered demonstrations of the system to better understand the ramifications of using such a program and APD is answering our many questions.

“While I am thankful for the initial changes, I believe more must be done – especially in regard to sharing data with other state and local departments as we have learned that these departments get to access APD data under their own department rules and not APD's rules.”

All APD policies are linked to the city website: Policies. There is also a transparency portal available (sourced by Flock) which gives information about data sharing, number of searches and policies.

"All parties agreed that this was not the end of the discussion," Fenton noted. "And Chief Olson has already shared some proposed policy changes with us."