CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Sometimes new technology requires new rules.
That’s my position with Flock cameras. There are 20 of them in Wausau, and 10 more in Marathon County. Wausau mayor Doug Diny’s budget proposal provides for $50,000 to keep the cameras running. The city council will review it first.
I have heard the police department’s arguments in favor of Flock. The cameras are very effective at solving hit-and-run cases, car thefts, and abduction cases that involve vehicles. So police consider the technology to be a useful tool.
But there is a trade off. Local residents have been slow to realize that their every movement is being tracked. Drive to school to drop of your kid? There’s a Flock record of that. Go to the grocery store? Flock records it. Trips to the library, to the park, to your favorite restaurant? Flock knows.
Did Wausau residents know that when Flock cameras were installed, they would actually become part of a 24-7 surveillance city? No, this happened with little or no public discussion.
For years the standard of privacy was this: You have privacy in your home. You have no expectation of privacy when you are outside. A busy-body neighbor could keep track of your comings and goings from their front porch, if they wished. It wasn’t really an issue, because, who had the time for it?
My opinion has changed about Flock cameras. New technology sometimes requires new rules. My position is this: before law enforcement accesses data about everywhere I go, a warrant should be required. They should have to go in front of a judge, articulate probable cause, and get approval from the bench.
Police will say I am making their jobs more difficult. Perhaps. Yet before Flock cameras, car thefts, hit-and-runs, and abductions were still solved with old fashioned police work. Before Flock cameras, police still regularly solved those types of crimes. This is a balancing act between the needs of law enforcement and our privacy. I think in the case of Flock cameras, our privacy should win out.
Chris Conley
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