Letter to the Editor: Longmont Rejects Flock, Moves to Halt Data Sharing

Last night, in a 5–1 vote, the Longmont City Council agreed to pause all sharing of Flock data with other municipalities and personal data services, decline any expansion of its contract, and begin searching for alternatives. Councilmember Diane Crist was the lone vote in opposition.

Photo credit: Pavel Ivanoff, Bizarre Electronics

Dozens of residents spoke in support of the decision to move away from Flock’s surveillance cameras.

Flock Safety markets itself as a crime-fighting technology company, but its system is built on mass license-plate scanning and large-scale data collection. The company was recently acquired by Palantir, a defense-contracted data-mining giant known for working with ICE, law enforcement agencies, and the intelligence community. Palantir was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, whose hard-right, anti-democratic political views and funding ties to extremist candidates have made the company’s growing role in domestic surveillance a point of national concern. Palantir’s tools specialize in predictive policing and large-scale surveillance systems — widely criticized for privacy violations, constitutional concerns, and disproportionate harm to communities of color.

Find the full meeting here:

Last night, Pavel Ivanov, owner of Bizarre Electronics in Longmont, shared the following speech with Council.

Good evening. Last time I was here, I mentioned my personal experience in Russia and how cameras, put in “good faith”, to track criminals and deter crime, have been used maliciously, to track political opponents, journalists, and otherwise “non welcome” citizens.

Today, I would like to expand on that.

In 2017, Russian authorities started to implement the face recognition into their already installed cameras. Today 300 THOUSAND AI cameras and 700000 “normal” ones are active across Russia, with majority installed in Moscow. That is early 2024 data.

Just like in the US, if we look at the “positive consequences”, we do see a decrease in overall crime, more efficient police work with more caught criminals.

Council, my humble opinion is: it doesn’t matter. We can not trade freedom, liberty and non-surveillance for perceived safety, when that control and surveillance can be used against anyone. It doesn’t make cities better. It doesn’t make citizens happier. And it surely doesn’t help with public’s opinion of the police.

The worst example of these cameras used against private citizens was in 2021. There were massive protests with 100 thousand people in Moscow, against president Putin and his corrupt dictatorship. It was the first big protest where people were not detained, not physically assaulted or otherwise hurt on the protest. What followed -was way worse – months and years of individual detentions, where the activists were brought in court for accusations of “fault to follow protest procedures” and similar bogus charges.

More than 180 court cases were filed within first week after the protest. At least 450 convictions during the first year after this protest.

Another media also reported that it only costs 200$ to do a complete check on anyone in Russia with this database. Adjusted for household income, it is approx 500$ here.

Council, 500$ for a complete personal profile is what WILL happen when we allow information like that to be collected, even for the good.

Russia has the same safeguards as America does. We, Russians, do have a constitution, promising freedom of speech, freedom to protest, freedom to express ourselves. Over years, that freedom has been slowly eroded away, and such technology has been monumental in this process.

Now, I wasn’t born here and some may say it doesn’t matter what I think. But its not just me. President Lincoln did say in 1883: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

And Russia is actively destroying itself. Tools like that allowed the non efficient, fraudulently elected officials silence the critics, control the narrative and push the country into poverty and worldwide isolation. Panopticons like that are what is being created with small steps like Flock cameras, offering not only online control, but offline direct surveillance with no warrant, reason, oversight.

Council, availability of this technology is a big risk. We heard and will hear about numerous cases of abuse, and I do have a sinking feeling that it will become worse. It will not get better.

Council, I don’t think Longmont should take this risk, and I respectfully ask to cancel the contract and not extend it anymore.

Pavel  Ivanof, Bizarre Electronics