Pappert: Flock Safety’s Nationwide Audit Began After Tennessee Highway Safety Advocate Flagged Camera Hazards

Kaitlin Housler
Tom Pappert, Flock Camera

Flock Safety’s decision to launch a nationwide audit of its license plate reader camera installations came after a Tennessee highway safety advocate identified what the company acknowledged were legitimate safety concerns with some of its equipment, according to The Tennessee Star’s Lead Reporter Tom Pappert.

During Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed his reporting on Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley’s announcement that the company is conducting a nationwide review of its camera installations, beginning in Tennessee after identifying 16 installations that required correction.

Asked to explain the difference between traditional license plate readers and Flock cameras, Pappert said the distinction largely comes down to the company’s software capabilities rather than the hardware itself.

“In all honesty, I think that you are mostly looking at different vendors with fairly similar products that are all going to argue theirs is the latest and greatest with the best technology, and it’s going to help law enforcement catch the most bad guys,” Pappert said.

He explained that Flock’s primary selling point is its integration of artificial intelligence.

“The value add from Flock Safety, the company that produces the Flock cameras, seems to be integration with some artificial intelligence, where it is able to track and trace these license plates through various different states and cities and streets with more efficiency than its competitors,” Pappert said, adding that determining whether those claims are accurate “would have to have a scientist, measure all of these competitors and figure out which is the best company.”

While debates over privacy and Fourth Amendment concerns surrounding automated license plate readers have continued, Pappert said a separate issue emerged after Tennessee highway safety advocate Steve Eimers, known online as “The Guardrail Guy,” inspected one of the installations.

Pappert recounted how Eimers, whose daughter Hannah was killed in a 2016 crash involving a defective highway guardrail, filmed a Flock camera mounted behind a guardrail and argued its placement could create an additional hazard during a crash.

“He recorded a video on the side of a highway in Tennessee recording a Flock camera installation. They’re the black poles with the little solar panel at the top. You can’t miss them once you know what they look like. And he said this is dangerous,” Pappert said.

According to Pappert, Eimers warned that if a vehicle struck the guardrail and then collided with the camera pole, the outcome could be deadly.

“Potentially, according to Eimers, if this pole had been involved in an accident, in other words, if somebody had hit the guardrail that it was behind and then crashed into the pole, it could have killed somebody,” he said.

Pappert noted that Langley publicly agreed the concern was valid and responded by ordering a broader review of the company’s infrastructure.

“According to the Flock CEO, this was actually a real concern. He said this is legitimate, said that they are going to start a nationwide safety audit beginning in Tennessee, and in one day they found 16 different poles in Tennessee that posed a public safety risk,” Pappert said.

“I think this perhaps speaks to the speed at which this novel technology is being implemented, that the best practices are still being developed,” he added. “And fortunately, even aside from the Fourth Amendment concerns, the privacy concerns, the abuse concerns, at least Tennessee can lead the way in making sure that they are installed safely.”

Watch:

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Flock Camera” by Flock Safety. 

 

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