People in Newport have concerns about the use of so-called flock cameras by police.

That was the topic of a spirited town hall meeting.

Our Emily Prince spoke to a reporter covering that issue and other important topics in Northern Kentucky.

More in tonight's Reporter's Notebook.

It's time now for our Reporter's Notebook segment, where we go in-depth with a Kentucky journalist.

Here with me today is Haley Parnell of Lincoln, Nikki Haley.

Happy Friday.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Emily.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

We're happy to have you.

So the biggest topic that we want to discuss with you is all that flock cameras.

And the peg there is that the Newport Police Department just held a town hall just a couple days ago to get the community's input on what they think about flock cameras.

So just to break this down for us, Haley, what is the purpose behind this technology?

And what did the Newport Police Department say about why it's beneficial for them?

Right.

So our cameras are a type of automated license plate reader.

So what safety is actually the brand, not the type of camera though.

They are leading the market right now.

So I think that's what folks are most familiar with probably.

And Newport held that town hall on July 8th.

You know, they said the intended use of the technology is to take a photo of the back of the vehicle that captures the license plate information.

It captures identifying features of the car, like the make, model, color.

And that's basically to aid an investigation.

So currently Newport has 17 of these cameras that they are trialing.

They haven't purchased anything.

They've been trialing these on for about three months now.

An example they gave was there was a shooting in May.

And there was a vehicle who had fled the scene.

They were trying to identify the suspects in that vehicle.

And the flock technology was able to capture, identifying features of that vehicle, which ended up leading to them, you know, getting the three suspects into custody under House Bill 58 and Kentucky, they aren't allowed to hold those images for more than 90 days.

But Newport has already set its own kind of rules and regulations at 30 days.

And, you know, these cameras are capturing still images.

They were pretty clear about that.

They're not taking video.

And, you know, they're they're talking about purchasing six cameras.

Those would be $3,000 apiece using drug forfeiture dollars.

And even with just six cameras, they would gain access to kind of a nationwide network of cameras, which would help with tracking suspects across jurisdictions, kind of like they did with that, mass shooting investigation.

That's fantastic background.

And I know from your reporting that it was a packed house.

I mean, the community members really showed up to, to give their input.

What did you hear from members of the community?

What are some of their concerns about these flock cameras?

I think the general consensus of, you know, the residents in the room was privacy concerns.

That was the number one issue, kind of, you know, particularly as it relates to their Fourth Amendment rights, kind of with data breaches and just kind of an overall misuse of the technology.

And an example that was brought up during that conversation was, an example out of Dayton, Ohio, which, you know, is in our coverage area, but it is kind of close to home.

So, Dayton recently announced in May that, it was indefinitely suspending its use of the cameras pending an internal review.

So there's actually currently bags over there, flock cameras.

And you know what the Dayton Daily News had reported was?

They found that data was being used for immigration enforcement, which is a feature of the cameras.

And but that was not part of the intended use by what was authorized by that city commission.

And Newport has already shared, at a previous meeting they held on May 11th that they are not sharing their data with the federal government.

And that's a great example.

And like you mentioned, I mean, Dayton is just an hour away, so it's pretty close to home of an example of that being used for other purposes.

Now, you did mention that there were representatives from this Flock Safety company also at the meeting.

What were some of their responses to these concerns?

Did they talk about just how many communities are using this technology?

So Carrie McCormick with flock, was president present at the meeting?

The town hall on July 8th.

And he did respond to concerns from residents.

He he mentioned that there are 6000 agencies across the country currently utilizing the flock technology on a regular basis.

He did kind of admit that there was an unfortunate misuse cases.

But he called them far and few between for daily use of the system.

He also said that, you know, while some cities have canceled agreements, he said the ones that were renewing their agreements or contracts or coming on for the first time were far outweighing those who were canceling.

Yeah.

And I know that even in the the article that you had, there was an interactive map there at the bottom to show all the different flock cameras that are in use throughout the country.

So Newport is not well.

Well, it's new technology.

Newport is not unique in wanting to adopt these and know there are even other, you know, communities in Northern Kentucky that have these two.

Right?

So there are 27 law enforcement agencies across Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.

That's our coverage area.

And our Kenton County reporters are actually working on gathering some of those exact numbers of contracts across Northern Kentucky.

So we have a better idea of who has an actual contract, who might be considering, who doesn't have a contract.

So so far, based on the responses that we've gotten back, we know that Bellview and Wilder in Campbell County have contracts independence, Fort Mitchell, the Crestview Hills, Lakeside Park and Villa Hills, in Kenton County.

Those departments have contracts with flock.

We got a response from Taylor Mill who said that they don't currently have a contract, but they have money set aside for it.

Which, you know, shows interest.

And then other departments responded that they don't have a contract, which was Alexandria, Cold Spring and the Campbell County police departments in Campbell County, and both Fort Wright and Park Hills in Kenton counties.

But these are discussions, like you said, that are happening all over the region.

Yeah.

Super interesting.

And I know you mentioned an important fact earlier that for Newport right now they're just piloting the flock cameras, but they're also, you know, right now they're trying to decide if they want to make these permanent.

So to kind of wrap up this discussion.

What is going to be next as far as who makes the decision of if Newport will keep these flock cameras?

Right.

So like I said, they're currently piloting 17 of these cameras.

They're debating on whether to purchase six of them.

And then in May, on May 11th, the commissioners did have a meeting where they brought the police department in, and they showed the public kind of the system and how it works and, how they would use it to search, their database.

And that was just a discussion.

The commissioners didn't take a vote or anything.

And then the update that came on July 8th was that there would be there would need to be another commission meeting, because that is the deciding body for whether, you know, they pursue a contract with flock or not.

That meeting has not been scheduled.

There has not been a date released for that.

But it does have to go back to the Newport Commission.

That body will ultimately be the deciding factor.

All right.

Well, there you go.

So we'll keep our eye out to see when the commission meets and what goes on there in Newport.

I feel like between data centers and flock cameras, it's keeping a lot of communities busy to decide how they're, you know, how they're going to go forward with these things.

So I want to switch gears a little bit to another topic.

Also in Campbell County, Northern Kentucky University just this week announced they hired a new athletic director to oversee their Division one sports.

What do we know about this individual?

Yeah.

So, Mike Odom was hired, actually, that announcement was also on July 8th.

And, so he is their new athletic director.

He previously came from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Before that, as I understand, he held some leadership positions in athletics administration that was at North Carolina State University and Wake Forest University.

But at NKU, he will oversee all of the university's NCAA Division one athletics programs.

And that includes 600 student athletes, coaches, staff.

And his starting date looks like it's August 3rd.

All right, there you go.

We'll go north.

That's my alma mater.

So I got to say, go north.

Finally, one last topic and just a fun note here.

So over in Kenton County, there is another northern Kentucky city that's in the running for it.

Interesting honor with their culinary experience.

Tell me about that.

Yeah.

So that is through something called The Local Palate.

That's a magazine covering kind of food culture in the American South.

So there were 15 cities total chosen by its writers and editors.

And then, you know, my understanding is there's three cities of that 15 that will come away as winners.

But the highest ranked winner will be revealed on the cover of the magazine on December 15th.

And voting actually ends today on July 10th.

Okay.

Well, there you go.

If you're watching this, go vote for Covington.

All right, Haley, we thank you so much for your reporting and breaking all this down for us.

And we'll look forward to catching up with you sometime soon.

Thank you so much for having me, Emily.