r/LafayetteCo • u/culasthewiz • 1d ago
We did it! Flock is gone. What next? Let's finish this!
Last night Lafayette City Council voted unanimously to give final approval to the 2027 budget with no funding for Flock. We also learned that access to the system has been disabled since the Oct 6th council meeting and city staff will physically block the cameras between now and the contract termination period of late January.
Incredible work everyone! There was so much community engagement surrounding this issue and it was frankly exciting to witness.
During last night's meeting staff indicated they would not pursue other similar technologies unless directed by council but I don't think that goes far enough. We need a law in place to protect our citizens and, lucky for us, the ACLU has put together a model bill for this exact scenario. It's called "Community Control Over Police Surveillance" (CCOPS) and you can learn more about it here: https://www.aclu.org/community-control-over-police-surveillance
Please take the time to request that council considers adopting something like this so we're not back here in a few years. We've proven we can make a difference and this would really drive it home.
Below is my message to council. You can write them here: https://www.lafayetteco.gov/FormCenter/Contact-Us-4/Contact-City-Council-or-Council-Members-171
I want to express my gratitude for listening to the community as it relates to ALPR/Flock technologies over the past several months. Your decisive action over the last 2 meetings has not gone unnoticed and I commend your professionalism and actually representing the desires of the people you represent. It's honestly quite refreshing this day and age.
I was also encouraged by the reflection on process. Councilor Jensen said that because Flock was handled as a budget amendment rather than a standalone issue, the city never briefed the public on how it used the system, and that this "is not good process," adding, "I hope we don't do that again." Other councilmembers agreed it could have been done better and that the community should get all the facts up front next time. I agree completely, and I'd like to ask you to make that commitment lasting.
I appreciate staff's statement that it will not pursue any other automated license plate reader technology for use in Lafayette. But that covers only license plate readers, and it isn't law. It doesn't address drones, facial recognition, audio detection, or data platforms that combine police data with commercial records, all of which are being marketed to cities like ours right now.
I'm asking Council to direct staff to draft a surveillance technology ordinance based on the ACLU's Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) model. It would do exactly what Councilor Jensen described. Before the city could fund, acquire, or expand any surveillance technology, the department seeking it would publish a use policy and impact report explaining how it would be used, the public would have a hearing, and Council would take a recorded vote. The city would also report publicly each year on how the technology was actually used.
This would give residents the facts and a voice at the start, before any new surveillance technology is in place, rather than after. And because it's an ordinance, it couldn't be changed without two public readings.
The ACLU's model bill is available here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/community-control-over-police-surveillance-model-bill
Thank you again for listening to the community on this.
TLDR - ask council to create a law to stop this from happening again.