No. I do not support installing Flock cameras throughout Winter Springs.
Winter Springs is a safe, family-oriented bedroom community, and I believe part of protecting our quality of life means protecting residents’ privacy as well as their physical safety.
I strongly support our police officers and giving them the resources they need to keep our neighborhoods safe. But I am not convinced that creating a network of cameras that records and tracks vehicles as residents travel to and from work, the neighborhood grocery store, our schools, and our parks is necessary or appropriate for Winter Springs.
If individual residents want to install security cameras to protect their own property, or if a group of neighbors chooses to implement a video security system at the entrances to their neighborhood, that is their free decision. I draw a distinction between residents voluntarily protecting their own property and city government creating a broader surveillance network that routinely records vehicles traveling throughout our community.
Technology can be useful in law enforcement, but there should always be a clear need that outweighs the intrusion on residents’ privacy. In a community as safe as Winter Springs, I don’t believe that case has been made.