Kechi police lieutenant’s arrest puts Flock technology under scrutiny
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The Wichita Police Department has revoked access to its “Flock” license plate reading camera system to the entire Kechi Police Department, WPD Interim Chief Troy Livingston confirmed.
This comes after a Kechi lieutenant’s arrest for illegally using the system to stalk his estranged wife. The WPD is looking at other ways to add safeguards to the system the City of Wichita began using in 2020.
Livingston said “Flock” is an effective tool for public safety, helping to solve murders, kidnappings, and missing person cases, as well as recovering hundreds of stolen cars. He also acknowledged the system must be used responsibly and this includes addressing misuse.
Practically, Flock license plate readers are another set of eyes on Wichita’s streets.
“If we have a good general description of a tag, it can kind of help us pinpoint where that suspect is at, at least that suspect vehicle,” Livingston said. “It’s more efficient for the officers to find that vehicle as opposed to flooding that area with officers.”
City leaders say they’re seeing the benefits of these license plate reading cameras, but the proper use of that technology is also a top concern.
“(We) need to ensure that we have security in place to make sure there is no misuse or abuse and we’re protecting the privacy of our citizens,” Wichita City Council member Jeff Blubaugh said.
After now-former Kechi Police Lieutenant Victor Heiar used WPD’s Flock system to stalk his wife, Livingston said his department is reviewing its policies and procedures, including how other departments access the system.
“Such as needing assigned supervisors from those agencies to review and approve data requests before we provide access to our Flock system,” Livingston said.
He said the WPD is also going to audit the system every week instead of every two weeks as it was before. A Flock Safety leader was in Wichita Friday, meeting with the WPD. That safety leader said the auditing function is built into the system.
“Every single user in the system has a unique user ID that they have to use to log in. Every keystroke they do in the system is logged and that’s permanently available for the system administrator to audit and see how the system is being used,” Flock Safety Vice President of External Affairs Josh Thomas explained.
Thomas said the cameras take a photo of the back of every car that passes it and those photos are automatically deleted after 30 days unless they are part of an investigation.
“We have no personal identifiable information that we are collecting with the Flock system. We don’t know who the people are, the drivers, the registered owners. We don’t have names and addresses,” Thomas explained.
He said the incident with the Kechi lieutenant has them looking at other ways to safeguard their system from abuse.
“We believe it is our responsibility to make it as difficult as possible to abuse systems like this and to make it as easy as possible to catch anybody if there is an abuse,” Thomas said.
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