Two of Southold Town’s Flock cameras were vandalized and a third was found turned away as backlash grows nationwide over privacy, oversight and access to data collected by the controversial surveillance system.

Police Chief Steve Grattan told The Suffolk Times on Friday that two Greenport cameras were splattered with paint — with wires also pulled from one — while a third camera in Peconic was found facing away from the road.

The Greenport cameras — one on Main Street near the traffic circle and the other at Main Road and Manhasset Avenue— were damaged over the July 4 weekend, according to police.

Chief Grattan could not say whether the Peconic camera — located at Main Road and Wells Avenue — was moved around the same time or “if it was done intentionally or maybe a wind event that could have turned it.”

Southold is not alone in seeing the cameras targeted. Three Flock cameras were cut down in upstate Troy on July 23, while three others were damaged July 15 in Milford, Conn. Police in both communities are investigating the incidents.

“I think there are several reasons for pushback,” Chief Grattan said. “Concern about Fourth Amendment rights being violated, concern about data being sold to third parties.

Chief Grattan pointed to what he considers the system’s public-safety benefits.

“We use the cameras for not only investigating crimes, but we’ve used them for locating missing persons as well,” he said.

The debate over the Flock license plate readers took center stage at an April 7 Southold Town Board meeting, when residents pressed officials to reconsider the town’s use of the technology.

In one case, license plate-reader data helped police trace a 79-year-old Orient woman with dementia after she left the North Fork and was spotted in New Jersey. Investigators later tracked an Apple Watch in her possession, helping officers locate her safely nearly 300 miles away in Maryland.

Southold’s first four Flock cameras were installed in Mattituck in late 2022, Chief Grattan said. Seven more were added last year in Southold, Greenport and East Marion, bringing the town’s total to 11.

The Police Department purchased three cameras for $3,000 apiece using grant funding, while the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office donated the other eight.

The growing scrutiny over Flock cameras has also reached Albany. A state Senate bill introduced in April would restrict how government agencies use and share license plate data, generally require the information to be deleted within 48 hours and mandate annual reports detailing camera locations, searches, matches and outside access.

The legislation remains in committee.

The post Southold Flock cameras vandalized as nationwide privacy backlash grows appeared first on The Suffolk Times.

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