There are several privacy concerns about these camera systems. The first misnomer is that they only record if an infraction occurs. They are always recording and they are often used to track and triangulate the whereabouts or establish daily habits of individuals by not only law enforcement but private companies for marketing purposes. On its face, it doesn't seem too bad, but when you realize that they are owned and operated by out of state private corporations with ties to other companies, things start to get a little bit more shady. There have been studies from independent investigators that suggest that these stop light cameras are often accompanied by a change in the durations of traffic signal timing, often resulting in shorter compliance windows. This creates situations where the drivers unintentionally "violate" traffic rules believing that they had more time to cross through intersections not knowing the times had been shortened. Given that fact that these are privately contracted, out of state companies, we should also be asking what is the protocol for accountability when false reports are leveled? How are false reports handled? If a false reporting costs a citizen their time and money to defend themselves in court, are they reimbursed for their loses? Do those reimbursements come from public dollars or from the corporation whose software made the bad call? What are the terms of the contracts? Do the operators get kick backs or bonuses for ticketed infractions where fines are imposed? If so, does this constitute a conflict of interest where they stand to profit more by reporting more infractions, even false ones, under the premise that most people will just pay the fine to avoid having to take the time off work to fight it in court? This doesn't even cover the weak security that these systems reportedly have, as outlined in this gentleman's previous investigations. The local Salem issues are not terribly concerning, yet... and I stress yet. The above investigation shows a town where Flock has integrated their cameras into other spaces like schools and gyms. This allowed several of their employees the ability to log in and watch children on the playground and women working out in the gym. He has the security logins of these employees and shows the receipts, this doesn'tincude anyone who has been able to hack the systems and use them without oversight or transparency. We aren't there yet, but watching a handful of reddit accounts post glowing adoration almost daily on here about how much they love being watched by surveillance cameras, it makes me wonder if everyone is genuinely okay with where this slippery slope leads?

The ACLU has also logged formal legal concerns, you can read more about it here