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Fredonia looks set to pass an anti-Flock camera resolution.
Debate and outrage over the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office program, which put surveillance cameras downtown, has rattled the community for weeks. Fredonia Trustee Tim Mulholland proposed a resolution at a workshop this week to express distaste and call for the cameras' shutdown.
Mulholland's resolution looks certain to get passed by the five-member Board of Trustees, as it was clearly supported by Trustees Christine Cruz Keefe and LeeAnn Lazarony.
Mulholland's resolution is similar to one proposed by the Pomfret Town Board's Mike Lee. Pomfret will consider that resolution in November. The resolution states that Fredonia's government was never consulted on, nor asked to ratify, placement of Flock cameras in the community. It declares that local municipalities retain authority over their rights-of-way, and no Flock equipment should be in the village without Fredonia trustees' authorization. Finally, the resolution requests removal or deactivation of the cameras.
"I am not a proponent of mass surveillance, and no Board of Trustees was consulted," Cruz Keefe said.
Trustee Paul Wandel asked her, "If we had approval, would it be different?"
"I don't know, I mean, I wouldn't vote for it," Cruz Keefe replied.
Mulholland said, "I don't know that I would feel differently if we were involved in this process. I do have deep concerns about the security of these systems and the networked part of the surveillance. So, probably not -- but the fact that we weren't consulted is a large contributing factor to my disagreement with those."
Wandel said the county DA's office recently toughened its Flock data sharing policy. Mulholland replied, "That doesn't speak to Flock's policy, Flock's legality, or who else will access these cameras and the data."
Lazarony later commented that license plate camera readers will see improved security in time -- but right now, they are not secure enough. She echoed her trustees in saying that the erection of the cameras without village authorization is a big issue.
Wandel wondered if there is a level of crime that warrants surveillance. Police Chief Gregory Myers spoke up about that.
"it's not a predictable type of major incident" that happens in Fredonia," Myers said. "Our major incidents happen sporadically, but it's not something that you can count on like in a major city, where you have blocks that are problem issues... But there have been issues in the past few years in the village that we hadn't dealt with prior. Some of those issues, we've come up with solutions — a lot of those major incidents happened at Fred Fest, so we came up with solutions to combat violence happening at major festivals like that."
Myers said, "I'll leave it with this. My car at my house is locked every night. ...It's one of those, I should at least do the bare minimum to protect myself from being a victim of a larceny."
The police chief concluded: "We don't have crime sprees. I would consider the village of Fredonia safe, but we deal with some incidents at different times."
The debate devolved into commentary about whether or not Fredonia is "Mayberry," the fictional small town in the 1960s "The Andy Griffith Show." Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt compared the Fredonia community to Mayberry when he first saw it in the early 2000s, but said it is no longer like that. Trustees have, for some reason, gone on about that remark ever since.
"Even Mayberry had some crime. They had a sheriff in Barney Fife," Lazarony said. She said that her previous comments challenging Schmidt's characterization of a Mayberry lost, were meant to emphasize how everyone in Fredonia is so helpful and looks out for one another.