ATLANTA, Ga. — Mayor Andre Dickens has ordered a comprehensive 30-day review of the city’s Flock surveillance system and associated policies.

This comes as a growing number of law enforcement officers are being fired and arrested over misuse of the cameras. That includes several cases in the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

The internal audit comes as the Atlanta-based surveillance company announced a series of new privacy, accountability and security updates — and as advocacy groups plan a week of action against the company.

In an Aug. 10 memo to Council President Marci Overstreet and Atlanta City Council members, Chief Operating Officer LaChandra Burks outlined three areas the review will cover:

• System use and compliance.
• Policies and standard operating procedures.
• Corrective action and policy strengthening.

The compliance portion of the review will assess whether there have been instances of unauthorized, inappropriate or noncompliant use of the Flock system, and whether existing controls are functioning as intended, according to the memo.

The policy review will examine police and city policies governing access, authorization, permissible uses, data management, oversight and accountability.

The third area calls for identifying corrective actions and recommending improvements to strengthen safeguards, close policy or procedural gaps and codify existing best practices.

Dickens also asked Chief Impact Officer Candace Stanciel to assist in coordinating the policy component of the review with the operations team, APD leadership and the Department of Law. The memo states the city anticipates engaging external stakeholders and civil liberties experts as policies and safeguards are evaluated.

What critics say

Despite company’s announced changes, critics say the cameras go too far.

Anti-Flock advocate Kamau Franklin said he and others plan to protest during a week of action against the company, including a rally outside Flock headquarters.

“We think there’s a right to privacy, we think the system is being abused,” Franklin said.

Franklin said the 30-day city review does not go far enough.

“We’re glad that the city is recognizing that the system is flawed and they want to do something about it,” Franklin said. “But what they really need to do is stop the contract with this system and take these cameras down.”

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