It was a full house at the Tuesday, June 23 meeting of the Stoughton City Council, as around a dozen people spoke during the public comment period against the Stoughton Police Department’s use of Flock cameras. Residents spoke of concerns about the use of facial recognition software, violating privacy rights, and the possibility of data being misused by a third party used by the company. In a presentation to the council, Stoughton Police Chief Brandon Hill said the department has been using Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras since 2019, including a squad car that was formerly equipped with a camera, and asked council members to allow the department to continue using them. He said the department formerly had a contract with a company that was going out of business, so they switched to Flock, a competitor. “We started talking about it in 2018 (and) we got a grant from the Bryant Foundation,” he said. “This isn’t something new. We needed to switch vendors for this tool that we’ve used now for eight years. We found Flock was the best provider in what we were looking for.” How it works The city currently leases cameras from Flock Safety in a contract that expires in December of 2027. They use two types of cameras - ALPRs and pole cameras, which have a live video feed, Cameras were installed in May on major roadways and high police call volume areas. Once construction on Hwy. 51 is completed, SPD will have four ALPR cameras and one pole camera. Once an image of a vehicle or license plate is captured, it is searched through different lists, such as stolen vehicles or missing/endangered people. Alerts notify the department that a vehicle or license plate image was captured and where it was located for officers to