Santa Barbara has elected to cancel its contract with FLOCK, however this is not the win you think it is. Flock as the brand has become incredibly toxic, leading an abundance of municipalities across states to cancel their contracts. S.B. has followed suit, mostly due to pressure from groups like S.B. Resiste, Indivisible S.B., and the area Democratic Socialists of America-S.B. chapter. But this does not solve the root issue because other ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) AI companies exist. So when our city cancels its contract with Flock, another ALPR company is waiting to take its place.
Here enters the company Verkada, which the city has talked about as a replacement. Verkada offers a similar product but is largely unknown. It, like Flock, also has a checkered past ranging from data breaches to employee misconduct. Furthermore, it is partnered with Axon, an AI security company. Axon has a history of immoral decision making, such as going against its own ethics board’s advice, building an AI police report-writing software that erases edits, and selling tasers to Israeli forces.
So I am calling on residents of Santa Barbara to show up to City Council at 2 p.m. — even though the public asked city staff for a 5 p.m. start and they refused — on August 25 to voice your thoughts on surveillance companies. There are better solutions to help protect the community: investing in housing, creating job opportunities for underserved communities, and investing in mental health resources. If given the chance to speak at council, I will call for no such contracts with private corporations and talk about our 4th Amendment right to privacy, which states what a person “seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected.” I seek to preserve my movements as private.
