HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — It didn’t take long for a lawsuit to be filed against the city over their new surveillance camera partnership contract.
Huntington City Council opted to approve a $2.1 million contract with Flock Technologies Monday night, despite over 50 people stating misgivings about the company during public comments. The marathon council meeting ran until around 4 a.m. on Tuesday, concluding with a 6-4 vote in favor of the contract.
The ACLU of West Virginia joined the Haslam Law Firm and Glazer, Saad, Anderson to file a suit in Cabell County Circuit Court against the city for that contract. The suit was filed on behalf of Huntington resident Greg Jimison.
Flock uses Artificial Intelligence to gather data on individuals. Flock has defended their systems, saying they are simply the producers ,and it’s up to local governments to decide what the limits will be on the use of those capabilities.
The ACLU-WV announced the suit in a release, saying its filing is intended to stop this partnership from going forward.
“If the Court allows the contract to proceed, Huntington would be blanketed in license plate recognition cameras with vehicle fingerprint technology, live video cameras, gunshot detection audio devices, and even automatically dispatched drones,” the ACLU-WV statement warned.
ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said city council members violated their rules and regulations by approving the contract.
“The legal issues with this contract are numerous, but we are starting with how it was awarded in the first place,” Sparks said. “Simply put, the city acted hastily and did not follow its own laws when approving this contract, so it should be considered null and void from the start.”
“City code is clear that a private company cannot use property for commercial purposes,” Sparks added. “If the city wanted to grant Flock the right to use property belonging to the City of Huntington, there’s a proper process by which to do that. That process includes public notice, a public hearing, and other procedural safeguards to make sure that city property is used appropriately.”
Huntington is not alone in West Virginia Flock controversies. Concerned Monongalia County residents spoke out against Flock cameras during a county commission meeting earlier this month.
ACLU-WV Executive Director Eli Baumwell said the union felt that it had to get involved.
“As other towns and cities are waking up to the egregious abuses of this technology, Huntington officials worked behind closed doors for months to thwart the will of their constituents and push this invasive surveillance on the city,” Baumwell said. “We will not stand by while the city runs roughshod over the will of the people and the privacy rights of every person in Huntington.”