Village of Fredonia Responds to Concerns Over Flock Cameras

Flock safety cameras have caused plenty of controversy nationwide. The automated license plate reader systems, according to Flock, are designed to help communities "deter crime, respond to emergencies, and investigate safety incidents." However, they have also generated plenty of backlash for a number of reasons, including concerns over privacy and misuse of information collected. The issue was brought up during Monday's Fredonia Village Board meeting. Mayor Mike Ferguson said he has received a lot of phone calls and e-mails about the presence of those cameras in the village. He says the village neither owns nor operates them...

Mike Ferguson: we have no access to those

Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony added that the Village Board did not know anything about those cameras until they were already put in place...

LeeAnn Lazarony: District Attorney's Office contracted with Flock

In correspondence read during Monday's meeting, a local resident expressed disappointment about the presence of those cameras, saying that the data they collect is "controlled by private enterprises that do not care about the safety of our community." According to DeFlock, a crowdsourced surveillance map, there are currently eight Flock cameras in the Dunkirk-Fredonia area.

Click here for more information from ABC News about Flock cameras.

A Flock camera on a pole outside Fredonia Village Hall. Photo by Greg Larson