Huntington Council Approves Flock License Plate Reader Contract After Seven-Hour Hearing

The vote came less than a week after Jackie Harper, 33, was shot and killed in Huntington. Farrell told the council that Harper’s suspected killer had been found in another state and that Flock cameras helped track him down. He said the camera network also helped find a suspect in the earlier killings of a middle school basketball coach and his brother, a city worker. Farrell also cited an unsolved case from more than 20 years ago in which four teens were killed on prom night. “Take that in just this year, and then take it back to all of the cold cases that we have,” Farrell said. “Think about what might have happened had we had this technology,” he pleaded.

For the next seven hours, dozens of residents from Huntington and surrounding areas spoke against the contract. According to The Verge, they warned that individuals’ privacy rights would be trampled, that people would be stalked and surveilled, and that legal day-to-day activities could be subject to abuse by Flock itself or by rogue police officers with access to its recordings. Sometime after 2 a.m., a few speakers read from George Orwell’s 1984, passing a copy of the book to the next person in line.

Several council members shared concerns. Some warned that language in the proposed contract was not as tight as they would have liked to protect the city and could open it to lawsuits. They also asked whether, given the strong opposition from residents at the meeting and in private outreach before the vote, it was necessary to vote right now even if the technology might be helpful.

Farrell said he was inspired to bring Flock to Huntington after speaking with other mayors at a conference who said the tool was key to reducing crime. When one council member asked whether he had spoken with mayors of any cities that had canceled their contracts with Flock, Farrell replied, “I have not.”

The council first rejected a motion to table the contract indefinitely, then approved the resolutions 6-4. After the vote, a camera recording the live stream began to shake. “Is that thunder?” the council chair asked. Someone off-screen mentioned constituents watching in an upstairs auditorium. “That’s your taxpayers.”

The Verge described Huntington as a spread-out city anchored by Marshall University, with a downtown food hall, shopping areas and a city park. State Delegate Ryan Browning described it as a “small town” with a “big city feel.” Councilmember Holly Smith Mount, a Marshall alumna who voted against the Flock contract, said the city has “had our share of tragedies.” She said what makes Huntington “a very special little pocket of West Virginia is the people in the community and how they’re just ready to roll up their sleeves.”