The Henry County Sheriff’s Department and the Galva Police Department have stopped using their Flock surveillance camera systems.
But on Monday, Kewanee’s City Council showed little interest in stopping the Kewanee Police Department’s use of Flock.
Mayor Gary Moore, in particular, defended the use of the Flock system.
A retired Kewanee police officer and a current member of the police force at the East Campus of Black Hawk College, Moore said Flock cameras helped in two cases where women at the campus were being stalked by ex-boyfriends.
“I know someone who was saved because of my decision” to use the Flock cameras, Moore said.
The mayor acknowledged that there is “a real possibility” that the Flock system could be misused by police, and said he wants “everything possible done to protect the citizens of Kewanee.”
The police department must have oversight to avoid misuse of Flock, Moore said.
If there is misuse, he said, the police department should “get rid of the cop, not the cameras.”
Moore summed up his attitude about Flock: “If you still want to get rid of the Flock system, then I ask: What do you have to hide?”
Police Chief Stephen Kijanowski explained to the council how the Flock system gathers information, and how the data the cameras “see” is stored online. Police can obtain license plate numbers of cars that pass in front of the cameras, he said.
However, the chief said, Kewanee doesn’t use artificial intelligence for facial recognition. In fact, he said, Illinois law prohibits that.
Kijanowski said the Kewanee Police Department has four Flock cameras, all of them pointed at city streets.
Council members also supported the use of Flock.
“I think it’s a tool that can be used very effectively,” Councilman Tyrone Baker said.
And Councilman Chris Colomer told Kijanowski, “It sounds like you have some pretty good guardrails in place” to prevent misuse of Flock.
***This copy has been edited to correct the information reported. The article originally stated that Flock cameras can detect faces. This is not accurate. Police Chief Stephen Kijanowski issued a statement saying that “while the system can capture license plate information, it does not use facial recognition and cannot identify or recognize faces,” and at no point was this stated by him.
