KSHB 41 reporter Marlon Martinez covers Platte and Clay counties in Missouri. Share your story idea with Marlon.
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The City of Weston has halted all future installations of Flock cameras and removed the system following major pushback from residents.
The city approved a budget to install two Flock cameras late last year. Mayor Kim Kirby declined an interview but told me the cameras would be a second set of eyes for law enforcement in the city.
For months, residents packed city council meetings to express their disapproval of the system. Katie Currid and Hillary Bufford shared their concerns with the city about the cameras coming to their neighborhood, citing a fear of being watched.
"When someone else can do whatever they want with it, it makes you question, okay, like, if they're taking pictures," Currid said.
"I feel comforted knowing like there's a police car in for the elementary school when I drop my kids off in the morning, but I didn't feel safe having the flock camera on my street," Currid said.
"It's definitely a feeling of surveillance, the behavior like the pattern of behavior tracking. As a mom, that was really unsettling to me," Bufford said. "It didn't seem like a proportionate views in our town, considering we have a pretty safe town, we have a fairly robust Police Department for the size of our town."
The first camera went up in February of this year. Just two days later, it was taken down after the city said it was installed in the wrong location. In the weeks that followed, more residents started asking questions.
"What was helpful was just seeing that other people felt the same way we did, and that once that happened, it was easy to just be like, Okay, let's go the city council meeting, let's give public comment," Currid said.
The growing pressure eventually resulted in the city voting to halt all future installations. The city says they do not have any future plans to continue with the cameras at this point.
"The two that voted yes on flock are actually the ones who brought up the proposals to move away from working with flock in our city. And you know that just came from having conversations with our city council members," Currid said.
"We do have power as people, and we have a lot of power at our local governance level," Bufford said.
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