Law Department to draft ordinance regulating Flock cameras, surveillance technology

The City Solicitor’s Office is next in line to address the question of how and whether Waltham will use surveillance technology in its law enforcement.

The City Council’s Ordinances and Rules Committee on Monday night requested that the Law Department draft an ordinance defining surveillance technology and its permitted uses in the city. The committee asked that the draft be ready for review at its Jan. 20 meeting.

Ward 9 Councilor Robert G. Logan read a list of conditions for the Law Department to include in the ordinance: that city departments must get approval from the City Council to use any new surveillance technology, that city departments must publish guidelines on use of and access to information they obtain from the technology, that departments must publish annual reports on any surveillance technology usage, and that the city ban the use of facial recognition tools for surveillance.

The committee’s request for a draft ordinance is the latest part of an ongoing discussion about the Waltham Police Department’s purchase of 16 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras in June. 

Flock sells license plate readers to law enforcement agencies and maintains a database of information shared by its customers.

The WPD purchased the cameras using funds it seized during operations related to controlled substances and therefore did not come in front of the City Council to request financing. At the City Council’s Nov. 17 meeting, Assistant City Solicitor Luke Stanton said the WPD did not have the Law Department review its Flock contract before signing it.

Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur attended this week’s Ordinances and Rules Committee meeting to speak to the large volume of constituent feedback she has received on the issue.

“It’s a bit unusual to get three to five emails a week about one subject and to have so many residents following this so closely,” she said. “Their requests are pretty specific that they want the cameras turned off. We’re not discussing that tonight, but… we’re continuing to work on a solution that makes sense for Waltham.”

Flock has been criticized by the Massachusetts ACLU for potential violations of Fourth Amendment privacy rights, although Flock’s privacy and ethics statement claims that its systems “respect both the spirit and the letter of the Fourth Amendment.” Two U.S. senators have also recently submitted a request to the Federal Trade Commission to investigate potential security vulnerabilities in Flock’s technology. Flock has stated that its design is informed by the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, adding that it is addressing security vulnerabilities and they should not affect customers’ data security.