The intersection of Cottage, Winter and River Streets will not be getting a traffic surveillance camera.
Photo: Google
By Zendelle Bouchard
The City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 7 to reverse its decision to approve a 60-day trial of the Flock camera system for use by the Sanford Police Department. The system would have recorded vehicles and their rear license plates at six intersections in the downtown area.
Deputy Mayor Maura Herlihy made the motion to reconsider the Council’s Sept. 16 decision to approve the trial, which narrowly passed on a 4-3 vote. The Council’s rules require that a motion to reconsider can only be made and seconded by Councilors who voted in the affirmative the first time around.
Herlihy, Mayor Becky Brink, Councilor Ayn Hanselmann and Councilor Bob Stackpole all said they changed their minds after learning more about the system and hearing concerns from constituents.
Herlihy said she has concerns about using the Flock system after learning more about legal issues involving Flock Safety, and about the difficulty that communities who wanted Flock cameras removed have had in getting the company to take them down. “I want to support the Police Department, but…this is the wrong system,” she concluded.
Stackpole’s concerns center around control and potential misuse of the data collected. He said Sanford might be ready to adopt this type of technology five years from now, but not at this time.
Brink said she received “probably the most emails I have gotten after the fact” on a Council decision. Hanselmann apologized to the SPD and to Lt. Colleen Adams, who spearheaded the proposal, for what she called her personal failure to do due diligence before the Sept. 16 vote. She said she is in favor of license plate readers to take some of the burden off our officers, “but I don’t see Flock as a good community partner.” Hanselmann noted that Axon Enterprises, the company that manufactures the body cameras used by SPD, also makes license plate readers, and as “a trusted partner we are already using,” might be a better choice to supply the system.
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