By Sean Willis
A recent investigation by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KyCIR) revealed that the University of Louisville Police Department has access to 14 “Flock” cameras across campus.
Flock cameras are a popular surveillance system utilized by police departments across the United States, including Louisville Metro. They are primarily meant to function as automatic license plate readers, tracking who comes in and out of a given area.
The KyCIR investigation revealed the locations of Flock cameras covering almost every roadway leading to U of L’s Belknap campus. The cameras automatically track the comings and goings of every student commuter at the university.
The idea is that these cameras would aid police investigations, but research on their effectiveness is scant and mixed at best. Much of the literature that does exist comes directly from the company Flock.
The studies not commissioned by Flock themselves have shown some occasional positive results, such as reductions in reports of certain crimes, but these are often purely correlational rather than causational.
Constant police surveillance has become the norm across much of the world, but Flock’s devices take it to a new level that can easily be used to harm students.
Louisville has already been at the center of how Flock can be abused. A DEA agent recently utilized LMPD’s Flock cameras to conduct immigration searches. Additionally, according to the University of Washington Human Rights Center, Flock has been a tool often used by immigration enforcement in other states.
The potential harm goes well beyond this. The Electronic Frontier Foundation found widespread abuse committed across the nation by law enforcement agencies utilizing Flock cameras and databases. This includes targeting and tracking of protestors, racial profiling and searches based on slurs, tracking those seeking reproductive healthcare and more.
The American Civil Liberties Union states that Flock is currently building “an authoritarian tracking infrastructure” with their camera network.
It is also worth pointing out that Flock doesn’t just provide data to law enforcement. They sell it to private buyers too.
For all of these reasons, Flock cameras on campus are dangerous. We are currently seeing how federal immigration officials are increasingly targeting people of color and utilizing racial profiling in their immigration enforcement.
As campuses are often centers of protest against the federal government, these cameras could be utilized to hunt down student protestors here in Louisville. This is especially alarming in the context of growing suppression of anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.
The cameras themselves are also riddled with security issues that make them easily hackable. There have been various security flaws that allowed for easy access to feeds from these cameras.
Flock cameras pose a profound risk to the safety of students on campus. They have already seen widespread abuse and represent an alarming new norm in government surveillance.
While ULPD presumably has some kind of protection in place to stop abuse, all it takes is a committed hacker or a federal directive to utilize the cameras for unknown, potentially harmful purposes.
Do we really need them on campus?
Sean Willis is an alumnus of the U of L Geography program and current Master of Urban Planning Student. He is president of the Urban and Public Affairs Student Association.
Photo courtesy / Sean Willis
