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ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) – A working group in Tompkins County has been formed to discuss Flock Safety.
Legislator Travis Brooks, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, is leading the effort to determine if the county will continue to work with the security company, which has been in operation locally since late 2023.
Flock technology is receiving increased criticism over privacy and data concerns recently, both locally and nationally. The Ithaca Common Council recently passed a resolution directing the city to terminate its own contract with Flock. That work is still ongoing.
One issue with ending the Flock contract at the county level is its connection to the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (G.I.V.E.) initiative and potential loss of grant money. The G.I.V.E. money is tied to programs within the District Attorney’s Office, Probation Department, and law enforcement agencies. Additionally, because Tompkins County is a G.I.V.E. recipient locality, it received Youth Employment Program funding from New York State. Nearly $700,000 was directed to the county over the first two grant cycles.
Brooks says the working group will contain a diverse set of perspectives.
“I’m personally a believer that moving forward means bringing voices around the table,” said Brooks. “We’ve done that successfully with the CJC (Community Justice Center) working group; we did that successfully with the jail working group. We had people that didn’t want a jail in this community sitting at the table trying to help us move forward. So, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The working group will be deliberate, thorough, and won’t rush to make a decision.
Brooks adds that some constituents have expressed that they feel safer with Flock’s cameras and gunshot detection devices, and they need to be considered too.
“Some of the voices we don’t hear in this room are folks that live in neighborhoods that historically have had larger instances of violence,” said Brooks. “There’s folks that talk to me all the time, and other legislators, about what their community feels like now with the cameras, but they’re not going to come here and say that because they’re afraid of retaliation from people that don’t want the cameras, [the] (…) folks that live and do things that shouldn’t be happening in those communities.”
With New York State’s grant application cycle approaching, Legislator Judith Hubbard wants to reassure the public that the working group understands time is an issue.
“I also want to highlight that I’ve been especially impressed with how our Sheriff’s Office has handled concerns about Flock,” added Hubbard. “He was very responsive when he looked at the searches that were being done by external organizations. He took corrective action and ensured that searches were being done with real reasons and real case numbers. I know that doesn’t solve all the problems, right, that’s why we’re still having these discussions, but I think it’s very important that we separate the issue of Flock from our law enforcement.”
Tompkins County Attorney Maury Josephson thinks the working group is the best place to tackle how to move forward.
“These are not clear-cut issues, they’re not easy issues, and I think attention to nuance is what the working group that Travis [Brooks] is pulling together can provide,” said Josephson. “[They can] provide a rigorous analysis, and a rigorous discussion of the issues; of the contract issues, of the alternatives, of the other possibilities.”
Josephson also addressed reports of an email between New York State Division of Criminal Justice’s Charles Tyree and a law student at Cornell claiming Flock is not tied to the G.I.V.E. grant.
“I’ve looked at that,” added Josephson. “It’s not rigorous legal analysis, it’s not rigorous factual analysis, and that’s what we need. That’s what I’m hoping to participate in providing to the working group.”
The working group is scheduled to meet for the first time this week.
You can see the comments from Brooks and others about the working group here.