EDISON, NJ — Weeks after Edison Council voted to expand the township's use of Flock Safety license plate readers, residents returned to ask the council to reverse course, and one councilman called for a law that would make misuse of the data a crime.
Council President Joseph Coyle said he would consider forming a three-member council committee to hear residents' concerns about the cameras.
At the Oct. 14 council meeting, resident John S. asked whether the council would be willing to cancel the township's contract with Flock.
"Will the council be willing to entertain a vote to cancel our contract with Flock, given its unpopularity?" the resident asked.
John said the township's contract with Flock is worth nearly $600,000 and will increase the number of cameras in town from 22 to 114, which he said is the most of any municipality in New Jersey.
He said the system threatens residents' Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches and could be used to monitor people attending political rallies or visiting abortion clinics, or to track people in cooperation with ICE.
He also cited cases of misuse elsewhere, including a woman who testified before a U.S. Senate hearing in September that she was jailed for 13 days after Flock misidentified her car in a fatal crash, and a Kentucky police officer who was arrested for tracking his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times.
John said the state's most recent annual audit checked at most 5 percent of searches per agency, which he said is not enough to catch misuse.
Resident Gabriel Franco said he was "distressed" that councilmembers voted to spend nearly $600,000 on flock cameras without a public vote. "We are taking another step towards letting Big Brother oversee out society and taking privacy away from an individual," Franco said. He said the council took two steps forward by proposing to ban data centers, but took two step backwards approving flock cameras
I as a resident of Edison did not feel like I was asked to vote on whether or not I wanted flock cameras to be added into my neighborhood. I was not asked if I felt if this was an appropriate use of $600,000,"Franco said. "I would have suggested filling more of the potholes around our town... or more importantly use those funds to subsidize school lunches for students at our schools."
Resident Patrice Swarbrick said the council should have consulted the residents before approving flock cameras. "I think you should have put it on the ballot as a public question. And I'd like you to consider, actually here's my plan - pause. Pause the plan," Swarbrick said.
'Does it outweigh the day-to-day crime?'
Council President Joe Coyle thanked the resident for speaking but said he respectfully disagreed. He asked whether the problems described outweighed the system's benefits.
"When you talk about these incidents that happen, these one-time, these one-off incidents, some are horrific, terrible," Coyle said. "Does it outweigh the day-to-day crime for the residents of Edison and keeping them safe?"
"When you talk about giving up your rights and giving up the chance that something horrible can happen to you, even though you're innocent, I don't think that outweighs that," he said.
Councilman calls for criminal penalties
Councilman Richard Brescher, who had listed Flock as one of his discussion items for the meeting, said he was surprised by the turnout.
The councilman said he believes the cameras help police solve crimes but do not prevent them. He said he is most worried about how residents' data could be misused, and that losing a job or a short jail sentence is not enough to stop people from abusing it.
"If they're going to violate our rights by saying you'll lose your job or maybe you'll go to jail for a year, that's not a deterrent," Brescher said.
Brescher said residents who oppose Flock want the council to put protections in place, and that hasn't happened yet.
"All we did was we put the machine gun in there, and technically there's nobody on the controls," he said.
He proposed that the council, at a minimum, pass a law making it a crime to misuse the system, including by Flock itself.
"I'd like to propose that we, at a minimum, pass some kind of law that it makes it a crime if it's not used correctly," the councilman said.
Coyle later said he would consider forming a three-member council committee to hear residents' concerns about the cameras.
Background
The council approved the Flock expansion by a 6-1 vote on Sept. 23, adding license plate readers at every entrance and exit point in town and a drone with thermal imaging, Patch previously reported.
Police Chief Thomas Bryan said at the time that the program will be paid for with asset forfeiture money, not taxpayer funds. He said the system has helped the department solve crimes committed by people from out of town.
Edison has used Flock license plate readers since 2022.
In New Jersey, license plate reader data is kept for three years, longer than in most states, according to the ACLU of New Jersey.
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