New privacy concerns raised over FLOCK cameras in Carmel

A new plan for 24 license reading cameras in Carmel-By-The-Sea is making residents concerned over their privacy.

Carmel-by-the-Sea’s ad hoc committee on FLOCK cameras came together to share privacy concerns they have about the technology.

Council previously approved the program back in 2018.

The city recently approved a plan for 24 more cameras for a two-year contract of more than $146 thousand dollars.

“Once they started going up, we realized that it wasn't the quite the look that we wanted or we weren't sure of. And so we've called it back. And now we're having a community engagement to find out how many the city wants,” Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Richards said.

The concerns from people living in the city ranged from the selling of data and the need for such a technology.

Another concerning the potential future use of facial recognition software.

“There’s nothing that keeps these companies from in the future turning on something like facial recognition,” Carmel resident Joseph Owens said. “Obviously there's contractual things like that, but they're basically building the infrastructure and the hardware and software and all of that to be able to serve something like that in the future.”

Carmel-By-The-Sea Police Chief Paul Tomasi hopes to add six cameras to the downtown area and create an opt-out program for residents to remove their license from the system.

Other cameras would be installed on existing PG&E poles in the city.

“Let’s focus on phasing it in. Let's work on the perimeter, which we already have cameras, but then we can maybe expanded downtown if needed and then reassess each year,” Tomasi said. “Is it working? What's the value of it? Right. Because you want to value what you're spending versus public safety. That's important. So we're balancing that.”

Chief Tomasi will now send his recommendations for the project to the city council on December 3.