The Independence City Council will host a public town hall on Monday, Aug. 17 to discuss the city’s use of Flock Safety devices.
The meeting will be open to all city residents and is designed to gather public feedback on the use of the technology by Independence PD, which was among the first departments in the Northern Kentucky region to employ the devices.
“This is really just to get public input and decide where we move forward from there,” Mayor Chris Reinersman said at the city council meeting this week.
Flock Safety is a company that makes automatic license plate readers and other surveillance technology. The devices have created tension in NKY because some people are worried about how the information obtained is stored and to whom it’s available. Newport held a similar town hall about the devices last month, and Newport Police later decided not to pursue a permanent contract with the company. The department had been previously using the devices on a trial basis.
Independence PD, on the other hand, has been using the devices since 2023, and there are currently 20 devices approved for use throughout the city, according to contract records LINK nky obtained through a public records request.
The meeting will take place on Monday, Aug. 17 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Independence City Building on Madison Pike.
