The Brief
- Milwaukee police agreed to make several changes to its Flock camera system policies.
- Among the changes are further restricting data access.
- A timeline for when any agreed-upon policy changes would take effect is not clear.
MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Police Department has agreed to make several changes to its Flock camera system policies, according to statements Monday afternoon from the department and the mayor’s office.
Flock policy changes
What we know:
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s office said the mayor consulted with Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Fire and Police Commission Executive Director Leon Todd, and communicated with county officials.
Johnson insisted on the following changes to MPD’s Flock policies, some of which he said the police department agreed to:
- Access to Flock camera systems data was limited earlier this year. At my direction, MPD has agreed to further restrict access to this data. Only supervisors will be allowed to access Flock camera systems. No officers or detectives will be allowed access to these systems at this time.
- The use of Flock cameras will be limited to Part I crimes, critical missing persons, drug trafficking organization investigations and abductions only. Part I crimes only include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults (to include non-fatal shootings), burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson and human trafficking.
- At my direction, MPD has agreed to create a publicly available dashboard providing the community information about the Department’s use of Flock camera technology.
- MPD has agreed to further limit access to Flock cameras by restricting access to Milwaukee’s cameras only to MPD. This means that MPD Flock data will be strictly limited to MPD so that auditing and oversight is fully within its control.
- In its oversight role, the Fire and Police Commission (FPC) has already initiated an audit of the Flock camera system and its use in the city. At my direction, the FPC Executive Director has agreed that semiannual independent audits of MPD’s Flock camera use will be conducted. I have requested that these results be shared directly with my office as an additional review of Flock camera use as well as provide public access to the findings.
- My office will continuously monitor the use of Flock cameras on a regular basis.
MPD later reiterated parts of the mayor’s statement and said it agreed to the following:
- Access to Flock technology has been further restricted to supervisors only.
- Access to MPD’s Flock technology will be restricted to MPD only. We will no longer share data access with surrounding jurisdictions.
- The use of Flock technology will be limited to Part I crimes, critical missing persons, drug trafficking organization (DTO) investigations and abductions only. Part I crimes only include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults (to include non-fatal shootings), burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson and human trafficking.
What we don’t know:…