Mon Commission continues to receive, address Flock feedback
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MORGANTOWN - "When you don't get reelected, this is why."
Those were the parting words from county resident Nicholas Turner Wednesday morning after he agreed to leave the Monongalia County Commission meeting following a tense exchange with Commission President Tom Bloom over what Turner described as a lack of transparency in the county's implementation of Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras.
"The commission and the sheriff's department have continued to fail to address the public concerns about Flock and their calls for removal. The lack of transparency and hiding from the public is telling. The commission and the sheriff's department are not interested in listening to the wishes of their constituents, and I don't want to hear about the Flock-created website you all tend to use for an excuse for your degeneracy," Turner said during the public comment portion of the meeting, referencing the "Flock Safety Transparency Portal" link recently added to the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department website.
In November, the commission approved a request from Sheriff Todd Forbes to provide up to $180,000 in directly allocated opioid settlement funds over three years to place 20 Flock cameras at locations across the county.
Just as it is in political jurisdictions across the country, the county's decision to implement the controversial cameras is facing sustained public opposition tied to concerns over the clash between civil liberties and automated surveillance, the potential for abuse, and the dependence on a private company to collect and store data.
"If you can't see that the public overwhelmingly rejects Flock and other interconnected surveillance, you're refusing to look," Logan Wheatcraft told the commission. "You and Sheriff Forbes were elected to represent the people and, on this issue, you're failing the people who put you in those seats. You may feel that what you're doing is the absolute right thing, the absolute right decision, but that doesn't matter. You're refusing to execute the will of the people."
Wheatcraft went on to say the recent arrests of two men for the destruction of Flock cameras "reveals a breaking point between this commission and the people."
"I want to leave you with a quote from the Declaration of Independence, which reminds us that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The consent of the governed. We don't consent to this. Commissioners, do better. DeFlock Monongalia County," he said.
While Paige Reiring applauded the transparency portal provided by MCSD, she questioned some of the information presented, including the document listed as "Contract between Flock and Monongalia Sheriff's Office."
"I have worked in business. I know that all of you, including the sheriff, know the difference between a purchase order and service contract. We are not stupid. I don't think you guys are stupid. I don't think the public is stupid. So, I was very shocked at seeing that being presented as, 'Here you go. You asked for the contract, and here it is,' "she said, later adding, "As we have shown again and again and again, people in Monongalia County do not want Flock surveillance. We do not want this Big Brother style of surveillance, as we are not going to put up with it."
As is customary, members of the commission used their individual reports at the end of the meeting to address points offered during public comment.
The commissioners reiterated that the capabilities of Flock cameras in Monongalia County are limited to images of vehicles and license plates.
According to the MCSD, the system alerts on plates that have been entered to the National Crime Information Center, are tagged as part of a missing persons alert, or have been entered on a hotlist of active investigations by the department. The department has also said a search of the system cannot be conducted unless an active case number is included in the search criteria.
"I've heard public officials state things like, 'Well, they can listen to a conversation two blocks down.' That is not these cameras. There's an assumption that they can do these things, and they can't," Commissioner Sean Sikora said.
When Turner began to speak out from the audience during Bloom's comments, Bloom asked him to stop, explaining, "I listened to what you had to say." When the interruption continued, Bloom responded, "Okay, you can leave then, please," and he did.
While Bloom conceded the Flock discussion has elicited strong opinions, he said the commissioners were elected to do what they believe is in the best interest of the county.
He further cautioned against claims that vocal opponents online and elsewhere represent the public as a whole.
"I find it somewhat disheartening that I keep hearing, ‘Well, the public is against it. The public is against it.' Just because you keep talking to the same individuals on Facebook does not mean that the public is against it," he said, adding, "That's the same public that the city of Morgantown had gone to an election because 'the public' was against the camping ban, and then the city of Morgantown voters voted for it. So, it's very clear that we need to be very careful with what the word 'public' means, and who is actually reinforcing their own opinions."