Residents add their voices to petition calling for city to cancel Flock camera contract

By Lizzie Stone, city council reporter

About 40 people registered their concerns at Tuesday’s city council meeting about Harrisonburg’s contract with the Flock camera company.

Residents who spoke asked the city to cancel the contract, remove the cameras and pass a data privacy ordinance to protect data as a property right and guarantee public input before signing another contract.

According to the city’s Flock Transparency Portal, 31 cameras are set up across the city. The portal says the cameras detect “license plates, vehicles” and do not detect “facial recognition, people, gender, race.”

Those who spoke gave a variety of reasons for why they were against the Flock cameras.

Some residents said the idea did not fit with their experience of Harrisonburg as the “Friendly City” which welcomes everyone. 

“The safest communities are built on trust, not cameras,” one person said.

Others talked about their issues with the security of the cameras and the collected data, including the threats of hackers accessing data.

One said even if Harrisonburg does everything correctly, they are “plugging into a nationalized system” that “feeds data into platforms designed for mass enforcement,” which the resident spoke against.

An online petition asking Harrisonburg to cancel its Flock contract has gained more than 1,100 signatures. Some residents who spoke referenced that petition and said they believe there is community support to cancel the contract.

“Flock surveillance cameras don’t make us safer, they make us vulnerable targets, and they erode community trust,” the survey reads. “Flock cameras are tools that can too easily be misused or abused and it’s the residents of Harrisonburg who will suffer the consequences[.]”

The neighboring cities of Staunton and Charlottesville have recently canceled or rejected Flock contracts after community members’ outreach.

Mike Parks, the city’s director of communications and public engagement, said the city appreciated the “engaged, caring community” and the time they took to discuss the issue publicly at city council and in sit-down conversations with city staff and representatives, including Vice Mayor Dany Fleming and new Police Chief Joseph Tucker.

“When we receive community feedback, we’re going to take time to consider what was heard and what actions may be necessary before moving forward,” Parks said. “If there are further discussions on this issue, we’ll be sure to let our community know so they can continue to take part.”

Sale of Warren-Sipe house on Main St. approved

The property at 301 S. Main St., also known as the Warren-Sipe house, will be purchased by Annie McDonald and John Buller, a married couple who own photography and real estate businesses. They said they  want to use the space for those businesses and will invite other artists and local businesses inside.

Council members said they wanted to support a local business and city residents through the sale of the property.

One Valley resident who also put in a bid for the property asked why the council made the decision they did, when other offers were higher.

“We had a tough decision to make and we made the decision that we felt was best for our community and for downtown,” Mayor Deanna Reed said. “It wasn’t about the money for me, it was about what would be the best fit.”

The sale will include historic preservation easements restricting what the owners can do with the historic building on the property. Historic features will be protected from change, unless there is a safety or stability concern. In those cases, changes will usually require city approval.

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