Pete Regan
Role at the time: Candidate for Tulsa City Council, District 9
Defended or excused
Statement summary
Pete Regan said he supports Flock cameras because they help police catch suspects quickly, while calling for privacy protections, weekly audits and severe punishment for misuse.
“As much as I hate to say it because it drives me nuts, I’m for it, and let me tell you why: I’m for it because neighborhoods have it as well. We caught two murders, that’s a double homicide. It took three hours to catch them There need to be privacy protections, guardrails, weekly audits, and severe punitive punishment if somebody has misused it. It has happened around the the country and maybe even the state. But right now, I think the police are handling it very well. And with precautions, I feel like it’s another tool to keep us all safe. Our police officers are also our neighbors (…) and I don’t love it, but I’m for it, and that’s why.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Tulsa District 9: Ben Johnson, Pete Regan, Shawn Tiemann disagree on Flock camerasCandidate responses on Flock cameras in the body of the article
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether networked license-plate readers such as Flock should exist and be used. Regan said he is for the cameras, credited them with a fast arrest in a double homicide and said police are handling them well. He also asked for guardrails and audits, but his conclusion is support for continued and expanded use, so we used Defended or excused rather than Mixed or conditional.