Officials say the device will identify “dangerous activities” including protesting police, supporting Palestine, filing public-records requests, and attempting to determine why there is a Flock camera in your living room.
You will receive a Flock Safety camera in your living room beginning this fall under a citywide public-safety initiative approved Tuesday. Your device will be mounted above the television and scan for what officials call “behavioral indicators associated with elevated civic risk.” You do not need to be home for installation.
According to city materials, indicators may include covering the camera, closing your blinds during daylight hours, possessing multiple protest signs, expressing support for Palestine, attending demonstrations critical of police, objecting to license-plate readers, filing repeated public-records requests, or asking who is authorized to search your footage.
You will not be considered a suspect merely because the system flags you. Instead, your household will receive a “contextual risk designation” visible to police, regional agencies, and approved public-safety partners. Officials emphasized that the designation is not punitive and may be removed after 180 days of “normalized activity.”
Your camera will not record audio. It will, however, identify faces, clothing, carried objects, visitors, printed materials, window signage, and “repeated patterns of concealment.” Officials said this should address most privacy concerns. If you rent, your landlord may consent on your behalf. If you own your home, participation is mandatory under the city’s expanded definition of the public right-of-way, which now includes “private residential space capable of generating downstream public-safety effects.”
Council members said the program closes a gap in the camera network. “Right now, when you go inside, we lose visibility,” one member explained. “That’s fourteen, sometimes sixteen hours where we simply don’t know what you’re doing.”
You may request your footage through city portal. Material involving active investigations, proprietary analytics, neighboring jurisdictions, or footage needed to determine why you were flagged may be withheld. You are asked not to obstruct the camera with furniture, houseplants, flags, curtains, tape, clothing, or your body. Repeated attempts to do so may be interpreted as an indicator of anti-surveillance activity and may result in prison time.