By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — News reports about Flock cameras continue to surface almost daily as anger and questions over the police practice grow across Indiana and much of the country.
Use of the cameras by police has angered many who believe the technology violates people’s right to privacy, but police contend it’s become a good tool to catch criminals.
Growing opposition has led some communities to reconsider their plans.
On Monday, Marshall County took a step to potentially rein in its use of the cameras when it voted to no longer automatically renew the county’s contract with the company.
The vote does not automatically get rid of Flock cameras in the county, but it ensures it won’t be renewed without a vote.
County Commissioner Jesse Bohannon, who opposed the Flock camera agreement several years ago when he was a county council member, has been an outspoken critic of the cameras.
“What had been sort of a slow trickle of cities and towns and counties having second.
News Now Warsaw now talked with Bohannon prior to Monday’s vote.
“I brought it up just to kind of test the waters and see where the rest of the local officials were at, and there’s just a lot of caution right now,” Bohannon said.
Marshall County’s contract with Flock comes up for renewal in September of 2027.
Concerns stretch from the grassroots level to Congress.
Last week, 3rd District Congressman Marlon Stutzman issued a statement saying that Flock cameras “take surveillance too far and are violating the privacy of law-abiding citizens.”
Government, Stutzman said, has no business collecting that much data on individuals and tracking their movements.
On Saturday, another nationwide Block Flock protest was promoted on social media.
There was no central location for the protest. Instead, those interested were encouraged to peacefully protest near the cameras.
More than 30 of the Flock cameras are apparently installed in Kosciusko County.
Jodie Cox, who lives south of Warsaw, is one of many people who have become familiar in recent months with the Flock camera technology and how they’re being used by law enforcement.
For more than two hours on Saturday, she stood alongside one of the cameras with a protest sign.
Reaction, she said, was strong.
“Lots of honks, lots of waves, lots of fists out of the side window,” Cox said Sunday.
Many pulled over to talk or ask questions.
A neighbor, she said, offered support and referred to her as a patriot.
She said she’s upset that the local surveillance program was implemented several years ago with little public attention and that the use of the cameras appears to be highly unregulated.
“I didn’t know what they were. I had no idea … And then when one popped up on (State Road) 25, I’m just like, ‘this is insane.’ ”
An opposition website, deflock.org, documents the location of more than 130,000 Flock cameras and claims that more than 100 communities have rejected the use of the devices.
Kosciusko County Councilwoman Rachael Rhoades also expressed her opposition on Facebook. She pointed out several concerns and wrote (in part):
“If you believe in the Constitution and you believe in our freedom and rights as a people of the United States of America, this is a clear violation of those rights. Though many things will be pitched as a benefit or help to the community state or nation. We need to be careful that we do not surrender the Freedoms and Liberty that our for father’s fought to protect and provide.”
