Retired BPD Captain talks good and bad of Flock cameras

On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga. And I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time, just like you. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit, available now wherever you get your podcasts. I started or not in 2013, and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business as essentially non-technical people. We're able to admin everything on the back end, front end, and sell things online easily. If Shopify were a bike accessory, I think it would actually be the bicycle. It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on Shopify.com. The WBEN All Local. A daily look at what's happening in Buffalo, Western New York, and the world. I'm Susan Rose. I'm Brian Maserowski. Last night was the final of several information sessions for town of Niagara residents to learn more about the radiation testing being done on their properties. WBEN's Jim Fink was there. Here's two numbers that tie into Monday's information session centering on long-buried contaminated radioactive materials that's buried in the backyards of Niagara and Erie County properties. The first number, 13. That's how many state DEC and Department of Health and federal EPA workers were in the Calvin Richards Senior Center in the town of Niagara to answer questions. The second number, seven. That's how many people showed up in the first 90 minutes of the session. So what does all that mean? Hunt real estate's Kathy Aronica thinks it is a combination of frustration and maybe at this point even a touch of apathy. And I think in a way our whole area has come to shrug their shoulders and say, well, you know, that's the way it is. Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of, on one hand, there's fear. On the other hand, there's apathy that what are you going to do? It tends to be the answer. What are you going to do? I don't think that should be the answer. But the issue remains critical, says Kelly Spurlock, Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors Government Affairs Director. Beanar is trying to gather as much information as possible, but the issue hangs over the heads of many, like the sword of Damocles. Yeah, I imagine the general public is scared and confused. So what happens next? It's anybody's guess. This is Jim Fink for WBEN.com News. Jim, thank you. Now, so far the DEC has visited over 1,200 properties. Nearly 800 other property owners have authorized further testing, although there is no indication what plans are for additional testing or for more informational sessions. The bills.

Saying that the team has heard from less than 1% of season ticket holders regarding sightline concerns at the new Highmark Stadium following Saturday's unofficial opening. Pete Gwley, the president of business operations for the team, said they'll be addressing those concerns on a case-by-case basis. Hopes to resolve all concerns, not just sight lines, but other things in the next six weeks before the September 17th home opener. Some photos on social media going all around the world, showing seating locations from which the full playing field can't be seen. The bills saying, though, some of those seats aren't even being sold for football games, though others are, and they'll be working through that. A lot of other things that they're working through, but... I also do think it's important to remember this was the first ever event with people at the stadium. So they're going to be ironing out a few kinks, whether it's this, the preseason game Saturday, another open practice, all before that home opener. Yeah, they've got six weeks, really, to get this right. And they are listening. So that's one other takeaway. Well, the largest jumbotron in college football. can be found at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Peter Hansen says the 17,000 square foot screen is perched high above the south end of Geese Memorial Stadium. More than 6,000 square feet, larger than the next biggest college display. In fact, the video board is so big that if you were to lay it flat here on the football field, it would stretch all the way from the goal line to the 23-yard line and out to the bleachers. That sounds humongous. It almost sounds like you wouldn't be watching the game. You'd be watching the screen. The screen is bigger than the stands at this, which I don't like. I think the big Jumbo Tron screen, whatever you want to call it, the new stadium is perfectly fine. I don't like it too big. Or else, like you said, you can't really pay attention and focus on the game. Well, the controversial North Odd Block Projects by Canal Side downtown. Now is at least one state lawmaker looking into what should change with the approval process. Here's WBEN's Brayton Wilson. In response to Empire State Development's proposed redevelopment of the North Aud Block at Canal Side where the state is proposing a $225 million development with $197 million coming from the taxpayers, Assemblyman Pat Burke has put forth a bill that will prevent property tax exemptions being issued for private development projects without a local governing body's approval. His legislation is based on a simple principle. not have the power to give away local tax revenue without local approval. We hear a lot about public-private partnerships, but at what point does public subsidy stop leveraging private investment and start just replacing it? That's what we're seeing. It doesn't feel like a public-private partnership when the public is doing all of the paying for things and the private is doing all the profiting of the things. This is a problem that has to be fixed. Under Burke's bill, before Empire State Development or other state entities approve a property tax exemption or similar tax benefit for a private project located with a city. The city's legislative body would have to approve the agreement following a public hearing, while also publicly disclosing elements of the projects such as property taxes it would otherwise owe, the value and duration of the proposed tax break and more. Burke feels transparency is always key with these kind of developments. There's no pakeness to so many decision-making processes, certainly when it comes to this quasi-public private practice. Things need to be laid out on the table, and our elected representatives at every level certainly need to be a part

of it, but what's the saying, you know, democracy dies in the dark. It's our money. And if it's not being transparently used, if we're sort of here saying about major hundreds of millions of dollars of public monies being used without proper oversight or local decision making, transparency is going to be one of the keys. to making sure that's no longer the case. Hear more from Burke Online. Brayton Wilson, WBEN.com News. Well, back in June, you might remember a group of developers, including Rocco Termini, Chris Jacobs, others sent a letter to the governor, the mayor, the county executive asking for oversight of the plan for the North Odd Block after they say developers changed it to greatly increase the amount of subsidized housing the development would include without any public input. State funding for the project? Over $700,000 per unit is what it amounts to. So some eye-popping numbers. It is for sure. The Savannah, Georgia Police Department has fired six employees who accessed data. to the flock camera system for reasons other than law enforcement, including four police officers. Savannah Police Chief Lenny Gunther says they were able to look into searches made using the camera technology. So out of those nearly 40,000 searches this year, the automated audit tool flagged 127 entries that warranted a closer look due to discrepancies between the listed search reasons. and the search patterns. Investigators determined six employees use the system to search for personal connections and family members. In one case, an officer gave access to the flock system to someone in another law enforcement agency. Meanwhile, doctors are pushing back against the Trump administration's attempt to limit the number of childhood vaccinations. The American Academy of Pediatrics is calling the president's changes dangerous. A member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee notes the timing of these changes could not be worse. This is happening when we've had the biggest measles epidemic in more than 30 years. In a new executive order, President. President Trump now recommends children get shots for 11 diseases, down from 18 as recommended by the CDC. The plan also includes splitting measles, mumps, and rubella into three separate shots instead of one. That's Karen Hua reporting from Washington. All right, no powerball winner last night with the drawing, meaning the total is climbing for Wednesday night. The winning numbers for Monday night's drawing were 6, 37, 54, 55, 65, and the power ball was 10. A winning $2 million match five-less power play ticket was sold in Tennessee, and two $1 million tickets that matched five numbers, but not the power ball were sold in California and Maryland.

including a ticket sold at a 7-Eleven on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. The jackpot for Wednesday night now grows to at least $975 million, where a winner could choose a lump sum cash option of about $422.4 million. Ted Lindner, Fox News. Get those tickets. Yeah. Another drawing tomorrow night. The exclusive. Hey guys, it's Daxston. And Hayden from Blondies Out Loud. And if you've ever thought about starting a podcast or making money from one. We use Creator Lab from Odyssey for our show and it's honestly been so easy. It's free hosting and it gives you a really simple way to earn on top of whatever you're already doing. Which, of course, we love because it just adds another stream without the extra work. So, if you're a creator or podcast curious. Check it out at creators.odicy.com. WBEN 7 weather forecast calls for partly sunny skies this afternoon as temperatures rise into the lower 80s. We'll also have a shot to see some rain near the state line. Otherwise, mostly cloudy into tonight, temperatures dropping into the lower 60s and mostly sunny on Wednesday. Highs are again right near 80 degrees. We'll have a shot for rain and even the potential for some thunderstorms a little bit later into the day. And for Thursday, a chance for showers and... thunderstorms, mostly sunny and highs near 80, with your exclusive WBEN 7 weather forecast on meteorologist, Autumn Lewandowski. Joining us on the Bison Automotive Liveline this morning. Former Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo. We're talking about flock cameras. Getting a lot of attention recently. Jeff, we'll start with the simplest question of all. Maybe it's not that simple. Flock camera, can you explain what exactly we're talking about here? Sure, well, good morning. Flock is a company that produces cameras that are very good at license plate recognition technology. So they're mounted on poles, overpasses, and they video record traffic, and they capture, make color and license plate information of the vehicles that are traveling in a particular roadway. How different are these from traditional license plate readers that police have been using for years? Well, they're not different. The differences in the setup, basically, you know, like in the city of Buffalo, you have cameras mounted all throughout the city. But that system is owned by the Buffalo Police Department. The data is owned by the Buffalo Police Department. In this particular... You have a private company that is installing these cameras harvesting and then storing this data and then selling it basically back to governments, private companies, and whoever they choose to accept as a customer. Yeah, so that's where part of the concern comes in, is who has full control over this and can a lot of this data be misused or used by somebody other than police? Well, again, Flock does sell their services to private entities that can put these cameras up on their property. That's been always the question around this type of technology.

We don't know what this private company is going to do with that data. Now I'm sure that there's contracts in place that municipalities sign that somehow try to ensure that the data is not sold to a third party and that it's only used by, you know, the entity that authorized the installation. But like anything else, it's... data that's being captured and is out there for use, whether it can be foiled through a public record request through a municipality or can be purchased by somebody through flock. I mean, those are the questions that there doesn't seem to be a lot of answers to at this point. Do you think, Jeff, that this makes community safer? Do you have any concerns about this technology? Well, there's definitely a very good law enforcement use for this type of technology. Literally, everyday police departments around the country are using LPR cameras to solve crimes. Everything from low-level misdemeanors up to and including homicides. rapes, violent attacks, kidnappings. So there is a purpose and use for the technology. But, you know, one of the things I find interesting is that Erie County was quick to ban private companies from using facial recognition technology, but yet they're welcoming this technology, which also tracks people in and around the community. So it seems to be somewhat of a double standard in terms of what the government is comfortable with in terms of tracking people. Does it open up a whole new way to, I don't know, maybe be concerned? I've heard these stories recently of flock cameras assisting in the arrest of somebody who was traveling between the borders of, I think it was Wisconsin and Michigan, going to one state to buy recreational marijuana. Then was arrested as he moved into the state where that's not legal to have because the cameras caught him going from point A to point B or some of these stories where they see a car that's in the vicinity of a crime. Next thing you know, you've got police showing up at your door. You have no idea what's going on, but because your car was somewhere, you're now kind of implicated in some crime that may have happened. Should people have concerns about that? Well, I think, number one, if you're not committing crimes, obviously, it's not something you have to worry about. But the difference here is that when a police department has its own camera system, again, I reference Buffalo. That's not a network that's shared nationwide, right? It's for the use of the city of Buffalo and solving crimes that occur in and around the city of Buffalo. However, with Flock, you have literally... created a mesh network of cameras coast to coast. So in the example you gave, yes, it is theoretically possible that they could track somebody's driving from East Coast to West Coast utilizing a nationwide network of these cameras. So, you know, again, the intended purpose is good, but you always have either misuse or abusive systems as a possibility, and you also have situations where,

The intended use is not really what becomes the practical use. And when you say track somebody's driving, that really could be anybody, whether it's a person of interest or not, I mean, is there right now, because of the cameras installed in western New York, basically a system uploaded thing of where I've driven in the last year? Without a doubt, companies that have agreements with Flock could run your license plate and get a printout of every time that you were in the vicinity of one of these cameras. And if you have enough cameras, it's a triangulation method. You could start pinpointing pretty close to accurate locations where your car might have been. But the other thing I'll say, Brian, is that we have a device. Every one of us on us that can track us within three feet of our exact location. It's called your cell phone. The difference with that technology is that for law enforcement to access that data, generally they need a search warrant or a subpoena for those records, where with these camera systems, all they need to do is log in. What do you know, Jeff, about flock cameras that have already been installed around here? Would it surprise people to know what you know? Much like the city of Buffalo camera system, right? You see the flashing blue light. You know the cameras there. I believe, you know, prior to my retirement, I think we had 220 cameras in the city. We also did have LPR cameras. They were utilized initially around high crime areas, and they paid a lot of dividends in terms of helping to solve crimes and track vehicles and things of that nature. But I think you're starting to see now these cameras systems pop up in locations that generally are not necessarily high crime areas. So the question becomes, what's the benefit of that type of surveillance in areas that aren't experiencing high crime rates? But again, it's a technology. It's out there. And, you know, the minute you step outside your front door, you're in the public view, you can be recorded. Well, the positives and negatives all kind of spelled out right there. Jeff, thanks so much once again. Jeff Rinaldo joining us live, a former Buffalo Police Captain, extensive security background as well, helping us understand a little bit about this technology that has everybody talking. That's the WBEN All Local. All new episodes are made available each weekday morning, produced by the award-winning WBEN Newsroom.

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