City Council Special Meeting - August 19, 2025: Flock Camera Discussion and Committee Appointments
City Council Special Meeting - August 19, 2025
The Norman City Council held a special meeting on August 19, 2025, at 5:30 PM to discuss the potential use of Flock automatic license plate readers (ALPR) by the Norman Police Department and to approve appointments to the Ward Five Candidate Selection Committee. The Flock discussion included a presentation from Deputy Chief Ricky Jackson and Flock's Director of Public Affairs Trevor Chandler, followed by extensive Q&A with council members addressing privacy, legal, and operational concerns. No action was taken on the Flock proposal; the council will collect constituent feedback before deciding. The committee appointments were approved unanimously.
Discussion Items
- Flock Camera Presentation: Deputy Chief Jackson introduced Flock as a force multiplier to address staffing shortages and improve crime-solving. Trevor Chandler detailed the technical aspects: cameras capture license plates and vehicle characteristics, data stored for 30 days, no facial recognition, no PII, owned by the city, auditable, optional sharing, encryption, and no ICE cooperation. Chandler cited success stories including finding missing persons, solving hit-and-runs, and aiding in kidnapping recoveries. Cost: $3,500 per camera per year initially; 10–15 cameras recommended ($30,000–$45,000 annually).
- Council Concerns: Councilmember Grant raised questions about ICE cooperation, abortion tracking, data breaches, AI bias, statutory authorization (citing a 2024 bill failure and a McLean County court case limiting use to insurance enforcement), and the need for long-term policy safeguards. Councilmember Hinkle asked about other vendors, an open bid process, and whether any Oklahoma departments declined or stopped using Flock. Councilmember Dixon inquired about private cameras already in Norman and the number of sharing agreements. The mayor noted that the cameras do not reduce crime but can speed up investigations.
- Officer Testimony: Crime analyst Jason and Major Barber described their use of other cities' Flock cameras to solve a carjacking and a homicide, emphasizing that Flock only provides leads, not guilt, and that all searches are logged with case numbers.
Key Outcomes
- No Vote on Flock Cameras: The council took no action. The mayor encouraged council members to discuss with constituents and report back to staff for a possible future agenda item.
- Committee Appointments Approved: The council unanimously approved the mayor's appointments (Aisha Prather, Randy Carter, Siobhan Evans, Heidi Smith, and John Dorrigo) to the Ward Five Candidate Selection Committee. The application process remains open until Friday, August 22, 2025, with the goal of filling the seat by the September 9 council meeting.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. I think that's everybody. Right. It is 5 30. See if he gives me that. Okay. It is 5 30. So we'll go ahead and get started with the City Council special meeting for Tuesday, August 19th. We have two uh two items on the agenda. The first one is a discussion regarding use of Flock cameras for the police department. And we have uh Deputy Chief Jackson here to talk about that. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us here tonight. With me, I have Trevor Chandler with Flock. We kind of want to go over some things about Flock. Before I do, I kind of want to give you a little bit of background while we brought this back. This is probably like the second third time we presented this here. And um I'll start with my job here in Norman. One of the one of the reasons why I got into law enforcement, one of many was that I wanted to make the community wherever I work safer than when I left and when I started. And so bring Flock back. I think this is one of the tools that would help us accomplish that. I've got family that those are my granddaughters live here. And um I think this is a tool that would help keep not only my family but your family's state and square. And so with that, uh like there's a lot of misinformation floating around about Flock, what it does, what it doesn't do. And so I brought Trevor here to kind of enlighten everyone uh to what Flock is and what it isn't, so that moving forward, people here at the council can make an informed decision about how they want to proceed with the Flock um program. So with that, I'll turn it over to Trevor. Thank you. Uh yes, everyone, I'm Trevor Chandler. I'm the director of public affairs for Flock. Uh I'm actually I'm really excited to be back in Oklahoma. I worked here uh briefly, I worked for the human rights campaign for six years, and as part of that, worked on the Freedom Oklahoma campaign to help uh be a part of the campaign to bring marriage equality here, but pre-uh federal marriage equality. And so it's just really cool to be back in town. So uh pleasure to be here with you all. Um again, I know this is a study session, so please feel free to ask questions in the midst of this presentation. Don't feel like you have to hold on to them to the end. My my main goal here is to get the the basics done. Um, you know. I didn't get that. Could you try and get it? Oh, okay. Well then, look at that. That was my voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I had it, I had it on uh silent mode too. Um do not disturb. Big brother. I know, Siri, right? Big Siri. Um so um uh you're gonna you you are gonna hear from your department about you know success stories and the practical aspects. I want to make sure that I'm spending your time wisely by focusing on the technical aspect about data security, the product itself.
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