So many people showed up to a Licking County Commissioners’ meeting Monday afternoon to hear Sheriff Randy Thorp talk about how his staff uses Flock surveillance cameras that they had to move the meeting to a larger room.
Many in the audience for the 2 p.m. meeting on Nov. 2 wore stickers that said “Less 1984, MORE 1776,” referring to the dystopian novel by George Orwell in which “Big Brother” is always watching versus the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution – specifically the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
And at least some of them indicated they wanted to do more than listen. They wanted to ask questions about who uses Flock camera images of cars and license plate numbers from Licking County, and for what purposes, given that the sheriff’s staff acknowledged that they share Flock data with “thousands” of other police agencies.
Even after moving the meeting from the commissioners’ meeting room on the fourth floor of the Licking County Administration Building to the much larger basement meeting room, it was standing-room-only for about 40 of the more than 100 people in attendance…