Agawam City Council questions Flock cameras in Agawam

Agawam Police Chief Eric Gillis speaks about Flock cameras at the City Council’s June 15 meeting.
Photo credit: Agawam Media

AGAWAM — Dozens of residents came to the June 15 City Council meeting to express concerns about Agawam’s use of license plate reader cameras from the company Flock Safety.

People were worried about what the cameras were recording and who had access to that data.

To quell those fears, the council invited Police Chief Eric Gillis to answer questions about the technology.

Gillis brought police Lt. Edward McGovern, who oversees the cameras, and two representatives of Flock — Public Affairs Manager Karl Bach and Regional Account Executive Scott Braren.

Gillis explained that several communities in the area use Flock, including neighboring Springfield, Westfield and West Springfield. Agawam leased six license plate reader cameras, five of which have been installed since March. “I can tell you, they’ve paid significant dividends thus far,” Gillis said. He recalled incidents in which the cameras were used to identify vehicles involved in crashes and find stolen vehicles. He called the technology “godsent.”

Referring to resident concerns, Gillis said, “We’re not tracking everybody. I’m going to be honest with you. We don’t have the time.” He said the department is short-staffed and need “every tool available to us” to close cases. He noted there were 30,000 calls for service last year.
Gillis said he was frustrated with people’s concerns about being tracked by the cameras because cell phones already monitor people’s location and pick up speech. He said, “If you have not been involved in a crime in your vehicle, we’re not going to be looking at that.”

Councilor Christine Rickmon later said, “I think the difference with people walking around with their cell phones is that we’re choosing to do that. We didn’t choose Flock.”

Bach provided a PowerPoint presentation about the company and the license plate reader cameras. He said 12,000 communications nationwide use Flock technology and it has been involved in 10% of the solved crimes in the country. He said the license plate readers do not record video, only still images of the rear of vehicles. They can capture the plate, make, model and color of a car, but not the people in the vehicle, and there is no facial recognition in use.

Addressing privacy concerns, Bach said data is sent with end-to-end encryption and is deleted after 30 days if not used in an investigation. Data is never sold and all requests for data searches must be approved by the Agawam Police Department. Bach refuted a frequent criticism that Flock’s license plate readers violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unlawful search and seizure. He said appellate courts have ruled multiple times that license plate information obtained in public is a lawful method of gathering information.

City Council President Anthony Russo asked if Flock has ever sold data or provided it outside of a police investigation. Bach reiterated that the company does not sell data and said, “We will never share your data without your permission.” Russo asked if there were any laws in place to enforce that, and Bach told him that it would depend on the jurisdiction. But he explained that Flock cannot initiate data sharing. It must come from the Police Department.

Mercadante asked if the Police Department had given permission to share data, either blanket permission or on a case-by-case basis. McGovern explained that individual law-enforcement agencies must request data and then, Agawam may provide access. “I have currently allowed police departments and police departments only to have access to our cameras in a 50-mile radius,” he said.

Councilor Peter McNair inquired about before the town leased the cameras. “Were… bad guys aware that Agawam didn’t have Flocks?” he asked. Gillis said yes.

“Folks who traffic in narcotics avoid communities that have Flock cameras,” Gillis said, adding that drug couriers were driving through Agawam because they knew there were no license plate readers. “They don’t anymore because they know that they’re here.”

McNair also asked if the cameras were used for traffic enforcement. Braren said, “Our company plays no role in speeding or red light” enforcement.

Councilor Ed Borgatti remarked, “If we had this when Lisa Ziegert was murdered, you would have saved my family, their family, all our friends, 25 years of hell.” Ziegert, an Agawam teacher, was abducted and murdered in 1992. Borgatti added, “If it solves one murder, it’s worth every single bit of invasion that it creates.”

Rickmon asked about the application for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s Community Mitigation Fund grant that paid for the license plate reader cameras. She said the application was submitted and then amended to include Flock cameras. Gillis said he was unaware of any amendment.

Rickmon also grilled Gillis about the justification for the application that stated, “Agawam is also the home of Six Flags New England and people drop children off for the day while they patron the casino.” She asked how the police know parents go to the casino and if there is any documentation of the connection. Gillis told her it was gleaned from conversations with parents of minors who have had interactions with police at the theme park.

Rickmon quoted Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley as saying on of 2025 podcast that “Flock writes code and pushes it out without vetting it for errors first” and that “he was personally writing and pushing out code to live systems until his own engineers removed his access.”

Bach said, “We take cybersecurity very seriously,” and noted that Langley has an engineering background.

Because of the Massachusetts Shield Law, searches for data related to reproductive health and immigration are blocked, Bach said. Councilor Tom Hendrickson asked about how the company ensures out-of-state agencies that are given access to Agawam’s data are adhering to the Massachusetts Shield Law. Braren explained that Agawam’s results would be removed from legally sensitive searches.

Councilor Anthony Suffriti asked about the number of people with access to Agawam’s data. Gillis said the only people with access are McGovern, the department’s detectives and a few traffic investigators. Gillis said he does not even have access because he does not investigate cases. Braren also said credentials identifying the user are logged for every search and those logs are “stored forever.”