Lowell Sun reported that the Lowell City Council voted 8-1 in executive session on Oct. 6 to turn the police department's Flock Safety cameras back on. The vote reversed a public decision the council made in September to suspend the cameras.
What did the council vote on?
- A public vote in September to suspend the cameras
- An Oct. 6 executive session vote, 8-1, to resume use
- Councilor Sean McDonough was the only no vote
- Councilor Sokhary Chau was not present for the executive session
- Mayor Erik Gitschier was one of six councilors who voted to suspend the cameras at first
The minutes are a summary, not a transcript. They say Police Superintendent Greg Hudon told the council there are 47 cameras covering Lowell and that policy violations "they are dealt with strictly." Hudon also said Massachusetts courts have accepted ALPR data as evidence in criminal cases.
Why was the vote held behind closed doors?
Gitschier said the topic involved security devices and their deployment, so it went into executive session. He said the council did not know in advance what police would raise. He also said the vote was not brought into public session because the agenda did not provide for a return to public session.
McDonough said he did not understand what changed for some colleagues between the September suspension and the executive session. He said he did not know a vote would happen that night, and that little discussion seemed to justify closed doors.
What changes for drivers in Lowell?
Under the Oct. 6 vote, Lowell's cameras are back on. Gitschier said the arrangement could be temporary, describing it as an agreement "to turn them back on until we met again." He said data sharing with other communities has been disabled, and that Flock cannot share Lowell's data with others under that policy.
This vote covers the cameras Lowell's police run. The source does not address cameras run by other agencies, and it does not say how long Lowell's cameras will stay on. Check the camera map for mapped cameras near you, and read how plate readers work for background on what these systems record.
What questions can residents ask?
Matthew Lucas filed the Open Meeting Law complaint on behalf of DeFlock Lowell, and he made three demands before the vote. He asked for the minutes to be released in full, for future Flock discussions to happen in public, and for the executive session policy to be written into the Flock contract.
Gitschier said he had his own questions during the meeting about who can access the system, the training policies and where the data goes. Those are useful questions for residents to put to the council and police. Residents can also ask whether the Oct. 6 policy will be written into the contract, as Lucas requested.
The Oct. 27 minutes say another executive session on Flock is coming, according to Lucas's public comment. The source does not give a date for that session. Watch for the next council agenda to see whether Flock is on it and whether the vote is held in public.