Support for this edition comes from Hope Chapel Guesthouse, Lafayette’s oldest standing religious structure. Hope Chapel will be embracing spooky szn once again this year with Haunted History Tours on Thursdays and Sundays beginning Oct. 11, and will conclude with a “season finale” tour on Friday, Oct. 30. For more details, please visit historichopechapel.com.
WEST LAFAYETTE GIVES INITIAL OK TO MORE FLOCK CAMERA LIMITS; CRITICS SAY IT’S NOT ENOUGH
West Lafayette took what city council members said Monday could be just the first steps in adding more restrictions to the use of four Flock cameras stationed around the city.
That included an initial, unanimous vote that would limit storage of data collected by automated license plate readers to seven days, down from the current 30 days allowed in city regulations passed in 2022 if it’s not tied to an ongoing police investigation; and bar any expansion of the equipment that includes video recording, live feeds or voice files.
But city council members were confronted repeatedly by residents who said that by time a second and final vote rolls around Nov. 2 that the council should up the stakes and get rid of the system completely.
“I want to first ask the council if you understand why we are angry about this surveillance technology,” Isaiah Lee, a West Lafayette resident, told the city council Monday night. “As it stands, our concerns aren’t being addressed.”
The press to get rid of AI-driven cameras – ones designed to capture license plate numbers, make and model of vehicles, and the time and date when they drove past a fixed spot – continued to raise questions about Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and concerns about how a third-party, private company might be using massive amounts of local data without the city’s consent or knowledge.
It also came amid a wave of national backlash as cases come to light of police officers using the technology to track former spouses, concerns about information from cameras being used by federal agencies and evidence of Flock developing products based on data collected in its system across the country.
“Personally, I do not like the idea of having any of this surveillance technology,” Adam Schmok, a West Lafayette resident, said. “If the goal is to make the community feel safer, I do not feel safer knowing there is some private or government institution constantly watching. Even if it’s just my car. The fact that I’m constantly being watching like that, day in and day out, day or night, does not make me feel safer.”
David Sanders, one of two city council members who proposed the changes to city regulations, said he agreed that the changes were small and that he was open to go along with the calls to end use of the cameras.
