Whitman County Sheriff's Office has disabled all three of its Flock cameras after community members voiced their concerns over the use of such technology.
The cameras have garnered considerable flack in recent months because of worries that the technology is creating a web of mass surveillance without requiring any warrants. For many, questions are now being raised over how much privacy Americans are willing to give up for the sake of security.
Supporters of the technology say it helps solve crimes, while critics believe it's the sign of something far more sinister, like what's warned about in George Orwell's "1984."
The three cameras were located "immediately in the Colfax area" and were designed to only be used for stolen vehicles, major crimes, missing persons and serious criminal cases, said Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers.
Myers, who's been the sheriff for the past 24 years, said they first started looking at using automated license plate readers about three years ago. Back then, they didn't have enough money in their budget. Last June, he said they had some grant money left over that they used to install Flock cameras.
The local grant, which was slated to be a two-year contract for $25,000, came from the Whitman County Emergency Management Department.
Myers said there wasn't any opposition when the cameras were first installed. They weren't used to search for vehicles unless they were directly connected to a major crime, a missing person or a stolen vehicle.
But over the past couple months, more and more community members have come forward to voice their concerns. Myers said he and his team are effective and thrive in Whitman County because their community trusts them. The last thing he wants to do is break that trust.
"Quite honestly, for me, I look at it and I'm like, 'Look, I value my privacy. I value those things.'" Myers said. "And if, for some reason, this is causing a major disruption right now in our community, there's just no reason to go forward with it."
A Washington Post investigation revealed that at least 50 law enforcement officers were either charged or accused of using automated license plate readers for unauthorized purposes. In a little more than half those cases, officers were said to have used that technology to track wives, girlfriends, former partners, their exes' new partners or women they wished to meet.
In Whitman County, Myers said line officers were not allowed to search through the Flock system without having a case number and going through administrative staff. The only people allowed to input data or search for vehicles were Myers and his undersheriff.
"The deputies never had the ability to search vehicles," Myers said.
Since the cameras came online several months ago, Myers said the technology only helped solve three cases and was largely ineffective.
One case involved a missing elderly woman. Using the Flock cameras, they were able to verify the woman never traveled through Colfax. She was later found in Boise. The other two were a narcotics case and a stolen vehicle case.
"I think we might have entered as many as six plates, and I think two or three of them were our own deputy's plates, just to make sure the cameras were working," Myers said.
Myers said their system was designed so that they never verified a stolen vehicle against Flock's database. Instead, they used a national database available to law enforcement officials to confirm whether a vehicle had been stolen .
"There have been a couple of cases where it certainly would have been a valuable tool to have, but again, not at the point where the community is concerned to the point where they're now distrusting their own local government," Myers said. "That's not our goal. I've never needed this technology in 30 years of law enforcement."
Myers said he received more than just five or six complaints from community members. He received several direct phone calls, and a couple of people even walked into the station to express their concern.
While many residents are concerned about the use of this technology, others, like Chad Shelton, aren't sure why everyone has such a problem with Flock.
For the past five years, Shelton has lived on the Idaho-Washington border in Viola. He lives 23 miles from the town of Colfax and works as a mechanic for Whitman County. Prior to moving to Viola, Shelton lived in Pullman for several years.
"If people are worried about personal privacy, they should not use any technology, including cellphones, internet, and social media," Shelton said via text message. "All platforms are tracking and listening to every movement."
He believes cameras in public places are a good thing, particularly in areas with a high crime rate. He pointed to the murder of four University of Idaho students in 2022, saying that if there were Flock cameras on the university's campus, law enforcement would've been able to nail Bryan Kohberger quicker.
"Don't break the law and you're fine," Shelton said.
Myers said all historical data has been purged from their system. They also never shared any camera information with outside agencies. Myers called Flock cameras "cost prohibitive," and since Whitman County is 2,200 square miles, he said they would need "a bazillion" cameras to cover the county, which isn't something he's interested in doing in the first place.
"It didn't provide us anything," he said. "So it's just an easy call all the way around."
The sheriff's office has triple -checked with Flock to ensure the cameras aren't gathering any information. On Flock's end, they have "no login availability." While the three cameras remain standing but inoperable, Myers said he thinks the cameras should come down "eventually," but he declined to say when exactly. The Flock cameras don't have anything obstructing the lenses, but Myers said the people of Whitman County are going to have to "trust that we're doing the right thing and that we're working on getting the cameras down."
"Is there too much information about us out there?" Myers asked. "I mean, obviously, our phones are tracking us, our credit cards are tracking us. Some people have concerns about the federal government, the state government and just the overreach ... I don't really know what the future is for Flock cameras, but I know, right now, there isn't a future in Whitman County for them."
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