Flock camera concerns discussed by Bay St. Louis council
BAY ST. LOUIS — During an Aug. 10 budget workshop, a Bay St. Louis councilman, Kyle Lewis, told the council the camera system budget would grow substantially. "Our current budget is 37,000. We increase it to 183,523. The bulk of that is going to be the 121,000 that we're using for the flop camera system for the license plate readers and the pan pan zoom and tilt cameras," he said. The $121,000 portion is tied to a Mississippi Homeland Security grant, according to the discussion.
The councilman said pending federal legislation could bar federal funds from covering such systems, potentially shifting costs to local taxpayers.
Mr Lewis also raised concerns about warrantless searches and noted the city has no written policy on who can access the camera data. The council voted to leave the budget line as proposed while seeking a vendor briefing before further installations proceed, leaving the funding question and the policy gaps unresolved for now.