Steph Machado with Col. Steve O'Donnell

From the Seacock Supply Hotline, Steph, welcome to the Tyro Granahan Show. Hi, Colonel. Thanks for having me. So the call is a call in if you want to table some of the conversation about flocks. I did want to flip the conversation this half hour to the debates. So Steph covered the province mayoral forum at Track 15 on Wednesday. I was there, watched it unfold, and she was the moderator, asked a lot of questions, and there's a, you know, Representative Morales and Mayor, excuse me. Mayor Smiley and getting your perspective on it and the Q&A that went on. And it does impact what we were just talking about, Flock, because they both had different views on Flock. So, Steph, again, welcome. And let's talk about what their responses to your questions relating to license plate readers. Yeah, and, you know, this was a forum that was specifically focused on downtown Providence. And so there's been so many, I think, 12 or 13, you know, mayoral debates at this point. We wanted to get into sort of some more downtown focused issues. And that includes public safety, of course. And so I asked them about the flock cameras, which have been, you know. Very controversial this summer. A number of cities and towns have been voting to pull their flock cameras, which surprised me a little because the flock cameras were so controversial when they were first installed, but then it seemed like the controversy died down after they were being used so much to self-crimes. And so state representative Morales, who's challenging Mayor Smiley, said, I believe for the first time that he will take the cameras down if he's elected mayor. And that's significant. He had previously said, you know, he had previously criticized the cameras. He said he would audit them. He said he would consider canceling the contract. But now he's gone a step further and said, you know, he's done with these cameras. He believes the risks in terms of potential privacy violations, data potentially being shared with immigration officials. and the like sort of outweigh the benefits of the technology. As, as we know, Mayor Smiley feels differently. He supports the cameras. He did say that they had put more safeguards in place, and I asked the police, after the forum, I asked the police department what those new safeguards are, and they told me that they actually recently further limited the number of police officers who have access to... look things up in the cameras. So that was already, my understanding is that was already a limited number of command staff and detectives, but I'm waiting to hear back on exactly how many officers now have access, but they went in and because of sort of the public concern about the cameras, they've actually further limited the number of police officers who can go search in the system and see the photos in there.

Understood. And we've, you know, it's a volatile issue. So if you don't mind, I'm going to, I have a whole bunch of calls coming in related to Flok. So I want to take some of those calls if you don't mind while you're on the phone. And you can give perspective, at least from the mayor's race. And if you picked up on any of that, did the flock come up in the governor's, the gubernatorial debates? It didn't, but it did come up in the attorney general debate because, as you can imagine, as the top law enforcement officer in the state, They, you know, should have opinions on this, right? These are the flock cameras produce evidence that they use in their, in their criminal cases and whatnot. And the attorney general candidates, if I recall correctly, none of them said we should get rid of the flock cameras, but they all said various, they all had sort of various answers about different safeguards that might need to be put in place. Understood. So, John, welcome to the Tara Granahan Show. Hey, good morning. I would tell you I'm against black cameras because in Massachusetts, what we saw were essentially three murder cases and stuff you'd be familiar with these. One would be Sandra Birchmore, another is Karen Reed, and the third is Enrique Delgado Garcia, a trainee at the Mass State Police Academy. All three instances, there was video available immediately to the police to solve the case. All three cases, they turn their back on the video because there were police officers involved. All three cases have seen criminal charges and sanctions against the police that were involved in all three cases. So we're supposed to believe that... There won't be any problems with police. They're going to look at it. They're going to make the right choice. They're going to use a discretion. If you want more examples, there are smaller ones, but those are three huge examples in math that are absolutely horrible. Well, John, from our perspective, I hear you loud and clear and you're accurate. Those are body-worn cameras that caught police doing things they shouldn't have done, and they impact those prosecutions. And all those police were held accountable. Every one of those three incidents you mentioned, police are really being held accountable from the State Police Academy, which is the Mass State Police. to the Karen Reed trial, which impacts the society. So the things they did wrong, and I think that's the point. Block cameras are totally different from body-worn cameras. Body-worn cameras are capturing voices, everything, activity with people different from license plate readers. License plate readers only take vehicles, description, and a plate, and they don't take voice. And those license plate readers would have solved the Sandra Birchmore and the Karen Reed cases. Body-worn cameras had nothing to do with it. Those were flocked cameras that would have easily shown it, and there were other cameras there, and they turned their backs on it. That's the problem.

Yeah, I'm not sure, you know, I know enough to talk to you about if they turn their back on cameras, but I can tell you from my experience, if they have evidence that they can use from a flock camera or a license plate reader, they'll use that. So we appreciate you calling. Why wouldn't they use it here? Yeah. Why did they turn their backs? The mass state police turn their backs, but now we can say because of your experience. Trust me, bro. Is that what we do? Trust me, bro. No, we don't. Those grieving families want answers. Nope, understood. John, I appreciate it. We have Mike calling in from a tuck in. Mike. Welcome to the Tyro Granhan Show. Hey, Colonel O'Donnell. Thank you for having me. So, yeah, my name is Michael, and I operate that guy 401 Independent News platform. I don't know if you've seen it. And I'm a former dispatcher and civilian. So I like to think of maybe sometimes my opinion might be a little bit, I don't know, less biased, I guess somebody could say, because I'm not, I wasn't an officer, but I saw the behind the scenes. And as Chief Perez and Chief Winquist stated. Law enforcement are given so many tools daily to use that have a lot more personal information. I never got to use the flock, but when it was being installed, what I saw firsthand was the increase in the crimes being solved. You know, people would call in and say, why can't law enforcement find my car that was stolen an hour ago, and this was before flock. And I don't think people realize that the only way it could be found in that moment without flock was that officers would have to run every license plate that would drive by and see if a car was stolen, if it was connected to a warrant. When flock itself now just... take that photo in alerts in the system, hey, this vehicle drove down, say, Broadway or Broad Street. Well, it doesn't alert. So I think the listeners should know it doesn't alert. It's only accessible when the police ask for it, whatever they're asking for. Right. And so it's not something that goes directly to police unless they ask for it. So it goes into a cloud when it's needed, they can access it. And there's a process to do that. Right. So it's like if you have a license plate that's connected to say Joe who's wanted and Joe's vehicle drives by, they'll be made aware that that vehicle went in the area. Yes, if they're asking for it. That's correct. Right, right. So I think that that has helped solve a lot of crimes as well in that perspective. But then I also look at the other side where people, you know, constantly, why officers have body cameras now is because people always wanted officers to be held accountable and to have some accountability. And it's odd to me, just seeing from the other side, when people say, see, you see how many officers or how many cases are being brought to the news?

holding officers accountable for abusing the system and it's like right because there's something in place to be able to hold those say bad actors like this gentleman was just saying um accountable for misusing the system. So isn't that what the public would want a system in place that helps solve crime, but also if it's misused, also holds those same officers accountable? No, Mike, thank you. I appreciate your perspective, and we'll get to our next caller. David calling in, welcome to Tara Granahan Show. Thank you for taking my call. Hey, David, my mistake, this is not my day job, so I made a mistake here. I have to go to break, and then we'll be quickly right back with you and Steph Maria Corina Machado. What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation. Another pinacolada? Yes, please. Open a new retail location. With 36% more square feet. Fantastic. Hire 36% more help. You're hired and you're hired. Shopify has the world's best converting checkout, up to 36% better than other e-commerce platforms. What you do with those extra sales is up to you. Switch to Shopify today at Shopify.com slash listen and get a $1 trial, Shopify.com. slash listen. The U.S. Soccer Podcast. These players are battered and exhausted, but you don't hurt like this if you don't care about this team, about this country, about this game. You can feel the intensity, the goals, the energy that, wow, look at us. Here in the U.S., I have got some news for you. There's so much more to come. My name is Megan Klingberg, and we're just getting started. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Welcome back to the Tara Granahan show. Steve O'Donnell filling in. I've been a lengthy discussion about flock cameras. I know, Dave, you're on hold waiting to talk to us. You're going to have to call back because I do want to change the subject a little bit with Steph Maria Corina Machado. I've asked you to come on and talk about the election. So, Steph, let's talk a little bit more about the race for mayor. Again, you covered the debate. You were the person. I don't want to overwhelm me with flock. But give us your perspective on the debate, the Q&A, the differences between both candidates? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really interesting race. Morales, you know, clearly is a serious candidate, and Mayor Smiley, I think, is clearly concerned about his challenge. Incumbents, you know, 10, you know, voters tend to give incumbents a second term, but, you know, the two are both Democrats, but Representative Morales is clearly to the left. of Mayor Smiley. And, you know, the form that you're talking about was mostly about downtown issues. But the two of them have really been sparring about public safety in particular. Mayor Smiley has, you know, a mailer goes out like multiple times a week at this point, criticizing Representative Morales about his previous position on defunding the police, which he says he no longer supports.

And it's gotten fairly vicious, I would say. There's attack ads airing on television, and then there's the mailers as well, really suggesting that Providence would be dangerous under Representative Morales. And Representative Morales has taken great offense to this and criticized Mayor Smiley for sending out these mailers. And so that's one of the, I think, biggest issues that has popped up lately. You know, the two of them disagree on other things, including rent control. In the forum the other day, which was mostly about downtown issues, you know, I think the thing that everyone thinks about anything about downtown is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza. And how do we make Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza a more desirable place to go, a hub of, you know, activity for families, for nightlife and to make it safer? Mayor Smiley wants to move the RIPTA bus hub out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza. There's a spot up by the train station that... the state is considering moving it to Representative Morales wouldn't commit to a position on that proposal. He said he wants to hear more from bus riders. That was another difference between the two of them. And then the Republican Dave Tallin was also there, by the way. He'll face the winner of the Democratic primary. He supported the flock cameras. He wanted to get rid of the red light and speed cameras, which might be popular with drivers, I suppose. So, yeah, you know, not a ton of differences. I think they all sort of agree that we need more housing, that we need downtown to be safe, but there were some clear differences there. Interesting, listening to it, I wasn't aware as a former Providence resident and a lifelong resident of Rhode Island, the bus hub, it's been going on for 12 years to move it from 1. Oh, yeah. To point B. When I was U.S. Marshal was a major contention with the judges about having all that traffic. And one of our colleagues got hit by a bus and passed away in front of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza. Oh, no. Yeah, one of the... It's not a U.S. Marshal, but the security team that works in the U.S. in the buildings, the federal court get hit by a bus, you know, only like five miles an hour because there's a lot of foot traffic there, so there's a lot of concern about, and the bus isn't turning around. But moving those buses outside of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza, and then what do you do with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza when you have more room? Do you make it a bigger inside park? Exactly. I think there's been so many proposals, but none of them have gotten off the ground. And by the way, the latest proposal to move the bus hub up by the train station, that's only the latest proposal. They have proposed to move this thing all over the city. There's been a bunch of different locations that have all been shot down for various reasons. They were going to put it on the 195 land. So this is just the most recent plan to put it up by the train station. Obviously, it makes some amount of sense because... You could seamlessly get off the train and then get on a bus to your next destination, right? But, yeah, so then the question is, what do you do with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza? Do you turn it into a public park of some sort? Do you put services there, like public bathrooms?

Do you, I think, I remember Mayor Alorza wanted to, like, move the ice rink over to where, like, from where it is, um, next to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza into the actual plaza itself. There was, I remember, a splash pad proposal at one point. There have been so much talk about it, but. First, they have to, you know, if they want to turn Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaza into some sort of destination for families, obviously first they have to do something with the transit hub. And again, it's been 12 years. So this, you know, started, in fact, I was. Hey, Steph, I have to interrupt you because I'm overdue for the, go to the news. But I appreciate your time. I wish we had more time for you. But that, and Steph Michaudo, appreciate you call again. Thanks, Carl. Take care. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake Toll. Anywhere in the country. Your home for talking sports. The United States hockey team has four teeth left. What is LeBron James Legacy? Leonel Mess. 906 career goals is stupid. All of it. The Knicks. The Los Angeles Lakers. Aaron Rogers. Georgia football players. The Dolphins. The Mets. As it happened, when it happened, we'll talk all of it. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake Toll. Follow and listen on your... your favorite platform.