By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Kosciusko County on Thursday night became the latest community to unplug Flock cameras after nearly 200 people showed up for a hearing to voice opposition.
Council heard a tsunami of public anger over Flock cameras, and after more than two hours of discussion, approved a series of unanimous proposals to defund all surveillance programs in the county.
Thursday’s meeting came after council delayed a final decision on the prosecutor’s 2027 budget a few weeks ago after council members spoke out.
Thursday’s votes are the latest sign of growing opposition to Flock cameras.
Officials in Fort Wayne and Noble County recently took action to end Flock services amid a growing backlash over privacy rights and the potential for abuse.
Thursday’s meeting was at times raucous and was delayed nearly 30 minutes as security tried to escort out people who had gathered outside the entrance of the old second-floor courtroom after seating inside reached capacity.
Some gathered on the first floor, and as many as 80 people remained outside the courthouse and listened online to the debate.
On numerous occasions, those inside the meeting could hear the boos and howls of opposition voiced from those outside.
Public opposition in Kosciusko County was led by what some called a tripartisan alliance on the issue, in which Travis McConnell, a Democrat, Chris Plack, a Republican, and Cassie Rolon, the chair of the Libertarian Party of Kosciusko County, worked together to lobby against funding
Rolon was one of many who spoke.
“All three major political parties are represented here tonight, standing together in unison on this issue, Rolon said. “That should tell you something about how strongly your constituents feel.”
Plack summed up some of the anger and also sent a warning.
“These aren’t our values that I voted for, and they won’t be the values we vote for next time,” Plack said.
Much of the animosity was directed at a Flock Safety representative who attended the meeting. At one point, one man called the company “a billion-dollar data thief.”
Several dozen people spoke against the use of license plate reader technology, but aside from law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office, and a representative of Flock Safety, nobody voiced support for the controversial policy.
Many were upset over the abuses of the technology by police that has already documented locally and nationwide. Some predicted advances in AI would create a network of surveillance, while others harkened back to the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested today’s surveillance technology could have been used then to control movements during the lockdown.
One man called the contract “a deal with the devil,” and urged council to back out of the agreement.
Rolon said afterward the trio’s attendance at an earlier budget meeting quickly led to a coordinated opposition.
She said afterward that she was proud of the public turnout.
“I truly do feel that if Chris, Travis, and I were not sitting in these seats when that budget meeting happened, they would have passed everything … in that line item issue,” Rolon said. “So I’m truly grateful that everybody is here.”
Councilman Will Stockdale made all three motions that were approved unanimously.
The first motion sought to withhold any funding for any ALPR (Automatic License Plate Readers) cameras or other similar surveillance equipment out of any county-controlled fund, whether using taxpayer dollars, user fees or grants.
The second motion was to “withhold any funding of Axon Justice without specific council approval.
Another motion addressed surveillance technologies, including signal tracing, drones, gunshot detectors, and other technology without county council approval.
While county council voted against funding, the county commissioners will now be asked to discontinue the existing contract at its Sept. 22 meeting.
Ahead of the meeting, many local officials, based on previous comments from council members, appeared to expect an uphill battle to preserve the program.
Prosecutor Brad Voelz, in his presentation at the meeting, pledged to work as a team to refine related policies and then announced that if council voted to block Flock funding, he would not seek to use any other similar programs.
Voelz had sought funding for next year’s budget to use Axon, which is used to help collect data and information to build criminal cases.
Opponents saw that as another part of a growing surveillance network.
Opponents also took aim at a 2023 ordinance that paved the way for a donations fund to support Flock infrastructure. While the commissioners approved it, some want to know why they used an exception available in the law to circumvent a vote by county council.
The county is expected to provide a clarification at the next commissioners’ meeting.
County Council’s two top leaders, President Tony Ciriello and Vice President Kathy Groninger, were unable to attend. Joe Irwin was selected to oversee the meeting.
Ciriello participated remotely online, but was prohibited from voting on the budget issue due to existing policy.
