Controversial surveillance cameras that were designed to share data with law enforcement have recently sprung up in Anchorage this month. At least one there was already cut down. A map where people can report these cameras shows several in downtown Juneau.
The five cameras on the map as of Oct. 7 are all in Juneau’s parking garages, owned and managed by the city. But, the city said, they’re not what people think.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the cameras shown on the map – made by Genetec – have been around for a few years now. They are used for parking enforcement.
“We don’t have Flock cameras, and we don’t have any plans to install them,” he said.
Flock is a brand of surveillance camera that uses artificial intelligence to capture license plates and other visual and other possibly identifying data. It’s been reported that law enforcement can access information from Flock’s national database. Flock cameras have cropped up around the nation and have been a source of concerns about privacy and surveillance.
For instance, some law enforcement officers have used the technology to stalk women in their communities.
Until recently, Alaska was the only state without any Flock cameras. But multiple Lowe’s hardware stores in Anchorage installed some, according to reporting by the Anchorage Daily News. Anchorage police told ADN the department does not have access to the data from those cameras.
A crowdsourced map of surveillance cameras — called DeFlock — identifies five automated license plate reader cameras in Juneau. In the past few months, residents have posted to social media expressing concerns about the cameras.
Barr – Juneau’s deputy city manager – said he doesn’t know if the data is stored with Genetec. But he said the only time the city uses the cameras for something other than parking enforcement is in missing persons cases.
“So the cameras are cameras, right?” he said. “So they’re not just reading license plates. They’re like normal cameras that also can, you know, see people, and there have been a couple of instances where we’ve had where JPDs reached out with a photo of a missing person and wanted to see if they could match that record to a camera record.”
These instances aren’t a normal occurrence, said Barr, and require approval from the city manager’s office. He said law enforcement officers can’t access the data from the cameras without that approval.
“I would say that we don’t have cameras that track people, right?” Barr said. “I think that’s something that people are concerned about with Flock.”
Barr said Juneau police would not start a contract with a company like Flock without a broader, community-wide conversation.
