EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly implied that Aurora Public Schools helped decide to remove Flock cameras from 12 school sites. The cameras were installed by city police and the decision to remove them was the city’s alone.
AURORA | Aurora police have disabled Flock cameras on Aurora Public Schools properties after the city discontinued paying for them amid public pressure against the surveillance technology, according to Aurora police and Aurora Public Schools officials.
Police say they will remove 12nFlock cameras, an automatic license plate reader and surveillance technology, from 6 schools across the district.
The move follows an Aurora city council decision earlier this month to cut funding for the cameras on school property.
Aurora will continue using the cameras across city property.
Corey Christiansen, a spokesperson for the district, said in an email that the cameras have been disabled, and that the district does not plan to pursue contracts for similar technologies.
“The Aurora Police Department shared with us that the cameras on our campuses have been turned off and will be physically removed by the end of the year,” said Christiansen. “We do not have any contracts with Flock or any similar security agencies or subsidiaries and have no plans to utilize these services.”
Previously, several school properties across the district had 12 Flock cameras operating through a partnership with the Aurora Police Department.
Several city council members had spoken against the use of Flock cameras on school property, raising concerns over bias and ethics.
At an Oct. 3 budget workshop where funding the cameras was discussed, Councilmember Alli Jackson said that the technology could easily be abused.
“You’re constantly collecting information that goes into a database, and then you don’t need a warrant to access that information,” Jackson said. “And I’m just worried about the bias that can run rampant and why we’re trying to access this information if you don’t need probable cause or to have a third party judge come through and say, ‘Yes, that makes sense. Please access that data.’”
The police department in Aurora has stood behind the cameras and has pushed to maintain contracts with the controversial tech company, stating that the surveillance makes communities safer.
On Tuesday, police said use of the cameras allowed them to make an arrest 18 minutes after callers told police gunfire had erupted in the parking lot of Rangeview High School in central Aurora. A Highlands Ranch man was arrested in connection with the high-school parking lot shooting that police said grew out of a road-rage argument. No injuries were reported.
“The investigation so far has determined two men got into an argument over an apparent road rage incident,” Aurora police spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement. “Both men were there to pick up students, who are family members.”
Investigators said the argument soon became a physical fight and then broke out in shooting. School resource officers at Rangeview helped determine the shooting suspect’s description and license plate number.
“Utilizing Flock automated license plate readers, city-owned cameras and drones as first responders, keen-eyed Aurora police employees assigned to the Real Time Information Center were able to locate the fleeing vehicle and relay its location to responding officers,” Moylan said.
Some city lawmakers, however, remain critical of the system.
Councilmember Gianina Horton asked what guardrails are in place to ensure the technology isn’t being abused.
Chief Todd Chamberlain said he agrees that guardrails are important and emphasized that the cameras don’t replace police work, but assist with it. He said the department has restrictions for accessing the technology and regularly audits who uses the cameras and why.
“Those parameters that we have set up, I think they’re going to be the model for departments across the nation,” Chamberlain said. “It’s about how it’s being used. It’s about ethical use of it. And there has not been any indication whatsoever in any platform that we have used that there has been any deviation from that.”
The police department has been a staunch proponent of the technology, arguing that these cameras can assist law enforcement officers. Previously, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called the technology “invaluable in police work.”
National media have reported several incidents where police use the technology to track former romantic interests and others. The Washington Post on Wednesday reported a case involving a former police officer in Georgia who continued to abuse a Flock system there to stalk his former spouse even after he left his police job.
Critics of Flock cameras point to other high-profile cases where the AI-assisted mass-surveillance technology has been utilized by law enforcement officers who misuse their power.
Recently in Indiana, five officers in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Force were stalking and committing fraud using AI-assisted surveillance technologies like Flock.
Thornton’s police department faced its own Flock scandal as recently as this past April. An internal police audit “found no evidence of misuse” by the officer in question, even though only 1% of the searches under scrutiny were related to specific case numbers and a large portion of these searches lacked documentation.
Some of the more conservative members of the Aurora city council, including Françoise Bergan and Stephanie Hancock, opposed cutting funding to the cameras on Aurora school property.
Mayor Mike Coffman also spoke against the move.
“I think that’s really an Aurora Public Schools decision. I don’t think it’s our decision to make,” Coffman said. “If the board of Aurora Public Schools tells us to pull the Flock cameras out then absolutely, but they’re not telling us that.”
“If it’s us paying for it, then we do get to make that choice,” Councilmember Alison Coombs responded.
City Manager Jason Batchelor estimates the cost of the Flock cameras at Aurora Public schools costs about $65,000 a year.
Similar to Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District removed Flock cameras from their campuses earlier this year, due in part to public outcry.
Before the city council pulled funding, Aurora Schools had signaled that it was aware of a general feeling of discomfort around surveillance technologies on school property.
School officials acknowledge that the issue of AI-assisted surveillance on school properties is nuanced.
In a previous interview with the Sentinel, Aurora Public Schools Board member Kristin Mallory stated that the district “take[s] the safety of APS students very seriously. Safety in schools is complicated, and we want to find the right balance between being aware and having technology to keep our kids safe.”
Mallory emphasized that her comments were her own and she did not speak for the entire board.
Mallory went on to add that there are “those in our community who have different experiences with APD and have different views on being surveilled”, adding that the board has to balance its obligation of keeping “kids safe” with “protecting them from government overreach and their privacy rights.”
Other communities across Colorado, including Denver, Salida, Longmont, Fort Collins and Durango have cancelled or opted to discontinue their contracts with Flock. Some of these cities, including Denver, switched to a different company to provide AI-assisted license plate readers.
Some mountain communities have seen Flock cameras vandalized or cut down.