Hundreds of people packed a town hall in Denver Wednesday night, sharing concerns about the city’s Flock camera contract.

“Then, in July, we learned through Denver audit logs that Denver’s Flock cameras have been accessed over 1,400 times, with the reason for search being Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said one speaker.

“The mayor announced this morning that he is, once again, unilaterally, without a public process or council vote, extending the city’s contract with ICE,” said a speaker with the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Denver.

Also present at the meeting was Tim Hoffman, director of policy in the Denver Mayor’s Office.

“I think there is a fundamental disagreement in that, yes, there are pictures being taken … but they are not being searched by anybody unless your car is suspected of being involved (in a crime),” Hoffman said during the meeting. “I want to be very clear that it is not the position of the mayor and the Mayor’s Office that you have no expectation of privacy when you enter a roadway.”

Hoffman’s statements were cut off with shouts of “prove it,” among others.

In May, the Denver City Council unanimously voted down a contract extension with Flock, citing privacy concerns and questioning who had access to Denver’s data as the city remains in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration due to so-called “sanctuary” rules. FOX31’s Nate Belt was also told in May that the mayor’s office had asked the council to vote down the contract renewal.

However, the mayor approved a contract extension in August that was just under the cost amount that needed a council vote, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

Johnston said Wednesday that new measures were added to the contract extension that include shutting out all access to city data to outside agencies without obtaining a memorandum of understanding, and a $100,000 fine for the technology company if or when data is shared with the federal government.

Denver City Council Member Sarah Parady took to the internet on Wednesday, sharing her concerns about Johnston’s actions.

“Mayor Mike Johnston has announced a backroom deal with the CEO of Flock for several back-end changes to Denver’s Flock system that he thinks are sufficient to address concerns about the technology,” Parady wrote. “His administration is putting in place a 5 month, no-cost extension immediately, without public input or approval of the council.”

Parady was also at the town hall on Wednesday evening, which she said was to hear the community’s concerns about the mayor’s decision.

“I was stunned to learn late yesterday that after convening a task force of local and national experts, Mayor Johnston has been negotiating secretly with the discredited CEO of Flock safety and signing another unilateral extension of this mass surveillance contract with no public process and no vote from city council or input from his own task force,” Parady posted to Instagram.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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    22 days ago

    “The mayor announced this morning that he is, once again, unilaterally, without a public process or council vote, extending the city’s contract with ICE,” said a speaker with the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Denver.

    Politicians have gotten waay too comfortable with this unilateral decision bullshit. This should be reason enough to end a person’s entire political career. If you want to be a king, you and Peter Thiel and all these other talentless tech CEO shitheads go build your floating monarchies, spy on and arrest each other, and leave America the fuck alone!