An Oxford city commission has decided it won’t recommend the city end its contract with Flock Safety, which owns 14 automated license plate readers in its jurisdiction — for now.
More than 30 people gathered at the city’s courthouse Thursday night for a discussion about Flock cameras. The discussion came after a June 16 council meeting during which members of the public requested that the city terminate its contract with Flock. The council deferred to the Oxford Police Community Relations Review Commission for advice on how to proceed.
Oxford entered into a contract with the for-profit company in February 2024, though it has had access to the company’s network of data since 2002, Police Chief John Jones said during the meeting.
Jones said the cameras help the city’s police department solve crime — and are a cheap solution. They cost $48,000 per year compared to a police officer’s salary of more than $100,000, according to Jones.
Still, he said the camera is auxiliary to officers, who may only use the system when investigating a crime.
“The camera provides a lead, though it doesn't provide probable cause. It doesn't provide evidence of guilt,” Jones said. “There's still a lot of human interaction that has to happen before an officer can even make a traffic stop on the vehicle.”
Rather than terminate the contract, the chief offered a list of recommendations for how the police department should modify its use of the automated license plate readers.
Jones’ department’s suggestions include:
- Making a transparency portal with information about what data Flock cameras collect available to the public.
- Reducing who the department shares data with to Butler and adjacent counties. Currently, Jones said Oxford’s Flock camera data is accessible to 2,215 departments.
- Providing additional training for employees that use Flock — something the police department has never done.
- Tracking cases solved with help from the cameras.
- Providing monthly audits to the commission for review.
- Using Flock Safety’s audit tool to find atypical patterns, such as repeated searches for a single plate by a single officer.
Also during the meeting, members of the public expressed their concern over the use of the AI-assisted license plate readers.
Many who spoke shared concerns about possible misuse of the platform by other departments or Flock Safety itself.
“They're in the business of making money, and they will do just about anything that they feel that they need to do to make money with this data,” resident David James said. “I have all the faith in the world that locally we're doing what we need to do to make this fair and to use it properly, but we don't know who's accessing this information and for what reason.”
After three hours of discussion and public comment Thursday, the commission voted to send Jones’ suggestions to the city council rather than suggest terminating the contract altogether.
“I see it as an effective tool, but I can also understand and be sensitive to people [with] the perception of being violated,” said Commissioner Chris Skoglind. “That's a perception issue that I think we need to address and be able to demonstrate on a frequent basis that the system is being used effectively.”
Only one member of the commission voted against the recommendations: Egon Kraan, who said he has concerns about the amount of data available to Flock Safety.
Ultimately, the decision on Flock cameras in Oxford lies in the hands of the city council, which is expected to discuss the future of the cameras during its next meeting on Aug. 18.
If it isn’t terminated, the Oxford Police Department’s three-year contract with Flock is set to expire in February.
Ahead of then, commission president LaTricia Hillman said she’d like the commission to review the police department’s Flock camera audits.
