This letter was sent to the Town Council of Windsor Connecticut regarding an ongoing debate in the town over the use of video data collected by Windsor police and shared to outside agencies via Flock. FOIA requests to WPD had revealed numerous access incidents by federal immigration departments, and at least one incident of a Texas Sheriff's office accessing the system to search for someone for the stated reason that she had "had an abortion."

Dear Council Members,

I was unable to attend the Council meeting last night, but I did want to take the opportunity to share my concerns about the use of Flock cameras in our community.

There is no doubt that retroactive video data, shared across departments, can help solve crimes more quickly and at lower cost. Public safety is important, but any benefits must be carefully balanced against the rights and security of our residents.

History warns us of the dangers of law enforcement tools being used across state lines in ways that undermine individual rights. To discourage enslaved people from escaping the barbaric laws of slave states, the Fugitive Slave Act co-opted other states’ law enforcement resources. “States rights,” in this case, could only be maintained by forcing other states to act against their own citizens’ conscience and the basic dignity and autonomy of people within their borders. The Fugitive Slave Act was a major factor leading to the Civil War and remains a stain on this nation’s history.

There are strong echoes of this now. Some states have criminalized reproductive health care for erstwhile protected classes of citizens, and have also criminalized providing aid to people trying to access that care. As with slavery, the states’ unequal treatment of people before the law is rationalized by religious belief and extra constitutional claims of “states’ rights.” These states are using technologies like Flock cameras to track their residents who travel elsewhere for legal medical procedures. They are also passing civil laws to extend their reach across state lines. This effectively deputizes their citizens to enforce state laws, akin to the bounty-hunting system that existed throughout the antebellum period.

In addition to this retrograde legal environment, we’ve also seen the emergence of masked federal agents abducting people and moving them between states without extradition, without meaningful accountability to the public, and without accountability to the judicial system. Immigrants, documented and undocumented, already face the constant threat of dislocation, deportation, and family separation. These paramilitary law enforcement resources can easily be refocused to impose unjust state laws across other states like our own. With one executive order, local camera data can be used to locate health care providers in our town and send them to face felony charges in other states.

While I understand the potential crime-solving value of these systems, I urge the Council to prioritize the rights and safety of Windsor’s residents and visitors. A prudent course would be to suspend implementation until the Council can guarantee that these systems will not expose Windsor residents, visitors, or providers to out-of-state legal risks.

Please act now to protect our neighbors and the medical professionals our community depends on.

Respectfully,
Keller Glass