When there is nothing to hide, one is not afraid of transparency. When there is something to hide, say nothing. That is what is happening in Houston’s use of Flock Cameras. The City and HPD refuse to state or document how the cameras are used.
If John Whitmire is using the flock cameras to report undocumented people to Trump’s goons, what are we getting in return?
There have been accusations that the Houston Police Department is using flock cameras to report people here illegally, which could explain Luis’s account of being stopped by ICE here in Houston.
While ICE is known to target people based on how they look, a Google search does not show that they target a particular type of vehicle, with the possible exception of work trucks.
A Chronicle investigation found Houston police are using the cameras more than ever, logging tens of thousands of searches just last year and justifying their work less and less.
In rare cases, Houston police have run searches specifying “immigration” or listing a federal agency such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection as the purpose of the search. It’s not clear exactly what those searches are.
… Houston police, despite assurances the technology would only be used for “legitimate law enforcement” purposes, are failing to document their purposes. While police are capable of listing reasons for searches, in most cases they either list nothing at all or provide a vague or meaningless explanation.
It’s not clear how Houston police leave the section blank, given company assurances that they need a reason to conduct a search.
How is HPD using the cameras?
Now in your report, you analyzed the search industry that Houston police made with the Flock system. Tell us about what you and your team found.
Well, we found that HPD is using these cameras more and more. They logged hundreds of thousands of calls just last year. And although the agency has reassured the public repeatedly that it would only use the technology for legitimate law enforcement purposes, we found that HPD officers are routinely failing to justify their work.
In other words, they’re mostly using the technology like a search engine, like Google, than an official law enforcement tool.
So in a lot of the searches that we reviewed, we had about 500,000 to take a look at. We found the word “investigation” – or variations of the word “investigation” – or “suspect” a lot with really no details about what the investigation pertained to or what the suspect may have done.
A lot of searches also just listed gibberish, like “ASDF” – that’s the sequence of letters in the center row of your computer keyboard. Or just said that they were there for random checks. We even found a search that just said “donut” or that didn’t say anything at all.
» GET MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE: Sign up for Texas Standard’s weekly newsletters
Is this tool an official tool for the official use of the police department? Or is this an unofficial tool that police are just kind of going to a third party that they are permitted to go to, but is not considered to be an official law enforcement tool?
This is considered an official law enforcement tool. HPD has general orders that dictate how this tool should be used. And those general orders say that it should only be used for legitimate police investigations.
How many of these cameras are being utilized throughout Houston and is there any indication that it’s helping to lower crime?
In the Houston area, we have several thousand, but we don’t know the exact number. That is not information that HPD or Flock will make available to us at this time.
… Police say that they’re using the system legitimately and that no regulation states that they have to justify those reasons on paper. And that’s true.
One of the main issues that we’re facing right now is that the policy that governs this technology is very old. It was put in place in 2015. And although it says that when it’s used, it should be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, nowhere does it state that officers need to write down those purposes.
Mayor Whitmire, you promised transparency, yet you seem to prefer operating in the dark.
The cameras may be used to look for women who have had abortions.
The revelation comes two months after Giannoulias announced that police in the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect had shared data with a Texas sheriff who was seeking a missing woman. The woman’s family was worried because she had undergone a self-administered abortion.
Although the sheriff in Johnson County, Texas, said he was simply trying to help the family locate the woman, Giannoulias demanded more vigilance from Flock Safety because of the abortion connection.
Related
License plate camera company halts cooperation with federal agencies among investigation concerns
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQnOcPQDe7h/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet