MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—The debate over Flock cameras continued at Wednesday’s Monongalia County Commission meeting.
Former Mountain State Justice attorney and downtown Morgantown business owner Lindsey Jacobs refused to follow established public comment rules for all members of the public requiring a name and address.
Jacobs declared the rule unconstitutional and told commissioners they would have to remove her from the meeting. After several requests to comply with the rule, Jacobs told the bailiffs standing beside her they would have to carry her out. Ultimately, Jacobs left the room under her own power.
“Remove me; you’re going to have to drag me out,” Jacobs said.
“Lindsey, yes we will,” Commissioner Tom Bloom said.
“That’s fine, and we’re going to sue you over this,” Jacobs said.
“Please do, if that’s what you have to do,” Bloom said.
“Get your hands off me; do not touch me,” Jacobs said.
The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office has 20 Flock cameras positioned around the county. The Monongalia County version of the system is a license plate reader that interfaces with a live crime data base. Deputies could be notified of a suspect involved in a crime, or they could be used to track a getaway or identify a suspect in a serious or violent crime. The system reads license plates only that are part of a crime, a criminal complaint, a Silver Alert, or an Amber Alert. There is no mass collection and storage of mass amounts of data, according to commissioners.
Deseree Reynolds, AKA Mama Luigi, told the commission the technology is unproven and not enough field experience has been gained to understand the far-reaching effects of the cameras. She also told commissioners she had concerns about the use of data collected by third-party groups connected to the Flock system.
“I’m here to say that Flock is a new frontier of surveillance, but that is not a good thing,” Reynolds said. “Sometimes you need to be able to experiment to find what works, but unfortunately the unwitting public are the guinea pigs of the new technology, and women are being put in danger, and you know this.”
Logan Wheatcraft declared himself a write-in candidate for the seat on commission in the western district that will be on the November ballot. Citing a decline in crime in recent years, Wheatcraft said the devices continually capture the license plate and vehicle type of innocent citizens.
“The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department has not reported a single kidnapping since April of 2024,” Wheatcraft said. “Meanwhile, in the last 30 days these cameras logged nearly 468,000 unique plate reads of innocent citizens—that is a massive privacy invasion for zero return.”
Mountain State Justice attorney Leslie Nash also expressed concerns about third-party use of the data and suggested a network audit. She said the audit offered on the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department website is internal only and a full network audit could capture the hundreds of departments that could access the data.
“It would be very interesting for me and the general public to know which agencies we are sharing information with,” Nash said. “I also think it would behoove the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department to run a network audit.”
After being asked several times for his address during the meeting, Bloom started his comments by reading his address into the public record. He went on to explain the decision to use Flock cameras might be popular, but it was made in the interest of public safety.
“We can disagree and sometimes strongly without questioning one another’s rights to speak or participate in government,” Bloom said. “But the same respect we extend to those who come before us should include respect for the difficult responsibility entrusted to this commission.”