The university has halted its initiative on starting a trial of Flock cameras as of Thursday, just over a week after its police department said it would start this spring.
Plans are “indefinitely paused” to allow time for future input from the UB community, a public statement released Thursday said.
“After careful deliberation over the past several weeks, I have decided that additional conversation and engagement with the university community is needed before determining whether to proceed with the pilot program,” University President Caroline Genco said in the statement.
Since August, University Police has faced backlash for plans to run a 60-day trial of 20 Flock cameras — automated artificial intelligence-assisted License Plate Readers run by Flock Safety — on campus as a new initiative to investigate vehicle-related crimes. Tensions erupted during a town hall last Wednesday, as attendees rejected UPD’s explanations throughout the entire forum.
The university community drew Genco into the foray.
A petition calling upon the president to reverse UPD’s initiative gathered over 940 signatures as of Nov. 6, and a Faculty Senate resolution in support of it was emailed to Genco by its chair Kristin Stapleton on Oct. 21. Na’Dia Carter, the undergraduate Student Association’s vice president for advocacy, told The Spectrum throughout the fall that SA was pursuing a meeting with Genco on the issue.
Days after University Police had announced they would move forward with the trial during the town hall, Genco had separately reassured leaders from student governments — including SA and the Graduate Student Association — and the Faculty Senate executive committee that it was not the case.
The decision to look into using Flock technologies happened a couple of years ago, Genco said, and she has been “getting up to speed” on what’s happening.
“When I heard there were concerns, we stepped back and we said, ‘let’s pause this until we understand better on how we can employ technology to better keep our campus safe,’” Genco told the Faculty Senate executive committee in a recording The Spectrum obtained. “There’s no question it was planned. And it wasn’t socialized like it should have been with the community.”
Additional security measures may still come to campus.
“We’ll make some decisions to make sure that we invest in additional security for our campus.” Genco told student government leaders according to a recording The Spectrum obtained. “We will do that. I don’t know what they will be.”
Genco also acknowledged how fiery UPD’s town hall became, and said that UPD Chief Kim Beaty “reprimanded” the staff for their behavior in an email.
“The chief took this very seriously and she basically told her staff, ‘This is not how we can conduct ourselves,’” Genco said to student government leaders. “We heard you loud and clear that we needed to do a better job of this town hall.”
Community input would be facilitated by the university’s Police Advisory Committee, Genco had said in Thursday’s statement.
The 15-member group is composed of UPD, university officials, faculty and students.
“After gathering feedback from across the university, the University Police Advisory Committee will develop a framework to advise senior leadership in evaluating the appropriate use of the technology, the security and handling of the data it collects, and factors to consider when deciding whether to move ahead with the pilot,” Thursday’s statement read.
The university had separately told The Buffalo News last week that the group would provide “a range of opportunities for campus dialogue and community input.”
GSA President Sarah MacDougall, a member of the Police Advisory committee, told The Spectrum it was “news” to her that the committee would be facilitating the conversation.
The committee had only met twice so far, MacDougall said, and the last meeting was in early September.
“It’s all feeling chaotic,” MacDougall said.
Stapleton had brought up the university’s mention of the Police Advisory Committee at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate executive committee meeting, telling Genco that UB was “getting ahead” of itself.
“The Police Advisory Council was cited as a guarantee that this would be done properly, and yet it has not discussed that whole issue yet,” Stapleton said. “It looks like the whole community has signed off on it because we nominated the people for the Police Advisory Committee. Of course, the public doesn’t know that but for me, it’s a concern because in some ways we’ve been used.”
Carter told The Spectrum that more communication needs to be had between Genco and UPD.
“Everyone’s confused and it’s not fair,” Carter said.
Mylien Lai is the editor in chief and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com.
Mylien Lai is the editor-in-chief at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @mylien.lai on Instagram.
