Jonathan Makeley
Role at the time: Prohibition Party candidate for governor of New York, in an emailed statement
Statement summary
Jonathan Makeley, the Prohibition Party candidate for New York governor, told Dispute Index by email that Flock and similar cameras need at least stronger policies, including safeguards for data and video access, the same standards of access and evidence as regular surveillance cameras, human review of flagged results before police act, and transparency. He said use should be halted wherever proper safeguards cannot be enacted, until they are.
“There should be at the very least stronger policies to address the main issues involved with them. There should be strong safeguards for data and access to video feeds. There should be strong policies enacted to protect against improper access or use of these cameras.”
Read the full email
I’ve been reading about the issue of flock cameras and other similar cameras this year and the concerns that have been brought up about them. There should be at the very least stronger policies to address the main issues involved with them. There should be strong safeguards for data and access to video feeds. There should be strong policies enacted to protect against improper access or use of these cameras. The use of such camaras by law enforcement should meet the same standards of access and evidence that there would be for using regular surveillance cameras. Anything flagged in a data search from such camaras should be verified by a qualified human reviewer before law enforcement should act on it. There should be proper transparency regarding such camaras. If an area or institution is unable to presently enact proper safeguards, then the use of such camaras should be halted, unless or until they are enacted.
Makeley sent this statement by email from the New York Prohibition Party's address in reply to a Dispute Index request about license plate readers. The link is to his campaign page on the party's website; the statement itself is not published there. The full text is reproduced as sent, including its spelling.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Makeley would allow continued use under strong safeguards and would halt it only where those safeguards cannot be put in place, so his position is conditional on the safeguards. We labeled it Mixed or conditional with the Guardrails step, since the halt applies only until safeguards are enacted.