More than a month after privacy concerns derailed a similar request in Portsmouth, Rhode Island State Police are expected to ask the Tiverton Town Council on Monday, March 9, to support a plan to install a “Flock Safety” camera on Route 24, part of a broader effort to build a network of close to 40 such cameras on roads across the state.

But in Tiverton, the debate would not mark the arrival of a new technology. The town has already hosted at least two Flock cameras for more than a decade — a fact that surprised at least one top elected official this week.

Flock cameras are automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, that photograph the rear of passing vehicles and log information such as license plate number, time, location, vehicle make, body type and color.

Installation requests submitted to town and city councils across Rhode Island have received a mixed response. In the East Bay, both Portsmouth (in January) and Warren (last November) rejected Flock cameras over privacy and data management concerns. Members of the Bristol Town Council approved a camera last month.

Not Tiverton’s first
If council members here follow Bristol’s lead and approve a camera for Route 24, it will not be a first for Tiverton — not even close.

“At least 10 years,” former police chief and now-town administrator Patrick Jones said Friday, referring to how long two Flock cameras have already operated in town.

Though he said he can’t recall the circumstances under which the cameras were first installed in Tiverton, or exactly where the two cameras are located, Jones last updated the town’s Flock policy in August 2022, when he was still police chief.

He said the cameras have proven themselves to be powerful law enforcement tools. He specifically mentioned a hit-and-run case a few years ago that was solved after police were able to obtain a plate number from a nearby Flock camera.

Long access list
Opponents in both Warren and Portsmouth have raised concerns about the cameras’ collection of large amounts of data, and how that data is used and shared with other law enforcement agencies.
Police agencies can search the data or create “hotlists” that trigger alerts when a vehicle of interest passes a camera. In Tiverton, Flock Safety maintains a “transparency” page for its two existing cameras.

A section of that page lists the town and state agencies across the country that have access to the information — many hundreds, from law enforcement agencies in Wyoming to others in Texas, Maine and beyond.

The page also lists activity carried out over the past 30 days:

• Unique vehicles detected: 37,285
• Hotlist hits: 141
• Data searches: 33
Those figures reflect the two cameras that have already been operating in Tiverton for years.

Waiting and seeing
Tiverton Town Council President John Edwards said this week he was not aware that the town has had two Flock cameras for more than a decade.

While he said the history is interesting, he plans to wait to hear what state police and members of the public have to say when the matter comes before the council.

“They’ve been in for a decade,” he said. “Where was everybody a decade ago?”

He also said he isn’t sure why state police officials are even seeking local approval, since the proposed cameras are on state roads and highways. Either way, he said, he looks forward to hearing the debate — one that, in Tiverton at least, comes after years of quiet use.