Tulsans concerned about police use of Flock cameras gathered in a classroom at Tulsa Tech’s Lemley Campus last evening. City Councilor Karen Gilbert called the meeting after she heard many questions about the cameras during her recent re-election campaign, especially after it was reported that officers in other cities had been abusing the Flock system. Gilbert told the crowd of about 30 people, “Fortunately, we have not had that abuse here in Tulsa, Oklahoma because we have a very strict policy in place, to where our police department is auditing the tags that are entered into the Our Flock System on a weekly basis.”
T-P-D Captain Shane Tuell oversees the city’s Real-Time Information Center and he says he understands the concerns people have about privacy. Captain Tuell thinks the department needs to do a better job communicating with the public about how the system works. “Our policies are very transparent,” Tuell says, “They’re all online at Tulsa Police dot org and we welcome everyone to look at them and know exactly that we are using this technology in the way that it was intended.”
Both Councilor Gilbert and Captain Tuell believe it’s possible that T-P-D policies regarding Flock camera use could be reviewed and revised once interim Police Chief Jonathan Brooks is sworn in as Chief on October first.
In all, the TPD has 107 Flock cameras in use around the city. The cameras are often moved and repositioned in neighborhoods where officers have identified a rise in crime.
