As public pushback against the use of automated license plate readers continues to grow nationwide, Cherry Hill announced this week that it will not be renewing its contract with controversial company Flock.
Read more Some citations against Bellmawr protesters have been dropped after the ACLU intervened, ACLU-NJ says
The township’s contract with the company expires on Dec. 31, Cherry Hill Mayor Dave Fleisher announced at the Sept. 14 council meeting.
“The Cherry Hill Police Department continues to evaluate its use of technology,” Fleisher’s chief of staff Brian Bauerle said in an email Friday. “In conjunction with that evaluation, Cherry Hill Township was also aware of ongoing nationwide conversations concerning the Flock network.”
Flock cameras capture the license plates and identifying features of passing vehicles, including bumper stickers and dents, in addition to the make, model, body type, and color. All of this information is then compiled into a searchable database that can be accessed by law enforcement and private owners of the cameras.
In 2022, Cherry Hill entered into a two-year, 10-camera pilot program with Flock, Bauerle said.
Once the contract expires, the cameras, which were installed at the end of 2024, “will become inactive immediately with the hardware to be removed by the vendor,” he said.
As the township prepares for the cameras to come down, the Cherry Hill Police Department is now looking into other options for similar technology that can be used in town.
“The police department is in the final stages of evaluating Axon automated license plate readers,” the same company that provides the department’s body-worn and dash cameras, Bauerle said. Axon’s dash cameras can serve as mobile automated license plate readers while the police car is in operation, he said.
Read more Tesla’s AI-powered Cybercabs have been spotted in Philly. Will you be able to try one soon?
“These cameras do not connect to the Flock network,” Bauerle noted. “The Department uses automated license plate recognition technology only for authorized law-enforcement and public-safety purposes and in accordance with both New Jersey law and New Jersey Attorney General directives.”
The department has not yet moved beyond the “evaluation phase” of the Axon cameras but if they do, Bauerle said the decision will need to be subject to various approvals by the township.
Cherry Hill’s decision to formally sever ties with Flock comes as people across the country increasingly push back against the technology. Critics argue that the cameras amount to mass surveillance and unconstitutionally track the movements of citizens.
Earlier this month, rural Shamong Township in neighboring Burlington County introduced an ordinance that would ban the cameras within the township for one year.
“Flock cameras basically create a surveillance system for people who have done nothing wrong,” Shamong Mayor Michael Di Croce said at the time.
“We should not create a permanent or searchable record of where law-abiding residents drive merely because they happen to pass a government camera or in the case of Flock, private-entity cameras,” Di Croce said.
Enjoyed this story?
Get more South Jersey news on your homepage with one click.