Privacy takes backseat to proliferation of license plate readers | The Republican Editorials
Privacy takes backseat to proliferation of license plate readers | The Republican Editorials
Publish Date: 2026-06-15 12:19:00
Source Domain: www.masslive.com
The Agawam City Council did not fully explore the privacy issues involved in granting permission to its police department to install six license plate readers last fall.
Now, some residents rightly have questions about where data about their travels on city streets is stored and with whom it can be shared.
Mayor Christopher C. Johnson has said he does not believe use of AI-powered cameras on Agawam streets deprives anyone of their privacy. But we share resident concerns about the ultimate use of the data, how long it will be preserved and who, besides the local police department, has access to it.
We also wonder why city councilors did not ask these questions about privacy last year when accepting state money to install the six cameras from Flock Safety, a tech firm whose CEO, Garnett Langley, predicted in a national publication the end of crime in the United States if enough license plate readers (LPRs) are trained on U.S. roads.
The City Council last September unanimously supported using $57,900 of state money to buy the cameras and subscribe to Flock for three years.
To be sure, Agawam is not the only municipality in Hampden County using license plate readers. The city is surrounded by communities that have adopted the roadside cameras to help deter crime. Westfield and Springfield both use the technology. Recently, police in Agawam and West Springfield, both customers of Flock, shared data to nab a hit-and-run suspect that had fled an Agawam crash.
The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that 80 communities in Massachusetts use Flock cameras, nearly a quarter of the state’s municipalities. Cambridge last November removed the 16 cameras it had installed after Flock technicians put up two cameras without the city’s permission.
After hearing from worried constituents this spring, Agawam City Councilor Thomas D. Hendrickson began asking questions about the data collected by cameras the council already approved. Hendrickson acknowledged that license plate…
