Members of the Little Compton Town Council may vote Thursday on whether to purchase two FLOCK automated license plate cameras at the request of police chief Scott Raynes.

Raynes believes the cameras could be a valuable tool for crime prevention, but the plan has sparked a considerable backlash from residents concerned about privacy. Councilors have received more than a dozen letters in opposition, and two separate petition drives also ask the council to reject the plan.

Now, residents are joined by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which argued in a letter to the council this month that the cameras raise serious privacy concerns.

“While we certainly understand the importance of public safety, the approach to safer communities cannot and should not include the continued usage of technologies- like these cameras- which raise significant privacy issues, are implemented with strikingly no statutory safeguards in place and carry the potential for future expanded surveillance,” ACLU policy associate Madelyn McGunagle wrote.

“Little Compton deserves to make its own choices about public safety tools based on our values and risk tolerance - not based on a private company's evolving sales model and growth targets,” added Little Compton resident Cushing Anderson in a letter to the council. He wrote that Tiverton's current proposal to add four additional cameras to the two the town has had for more than a decade is problematic. He cited what he said are changing policies at FLOCK which would restrict access to cameras in municipalities with fewer than five. Anderson cited this potential change as an issue, believing that if Little Compton were to enter an agreement with FLOCK, something similar could happen.

If FLOCK cameras were to be implemented, he wrote, Little Compton would become part of “a much larger network that has already been misused by other agencies, many local to us here in Little Compton.”

Council president Patrick McHugh did not say this week where he stands on Raynes' request:

“Everyone has been able to say what they think and write their letters and now we’re going to vote on them,” he said. “I want to be deliberate and thoughtful.”