We Are Soon To Be A Flock Community!
by TrailMark HOA board member Bill Kuenning
Here is information concerning the range of kind inquiries that the Board received:
[Kindly note: I am a Member of the Board and will address theses topics as both "The Board" and "we". There may also be some redundancies, in order to address ancillary issues.]
■■■■ The TrailMark Board of Directors is pleased to announce our recent unanimous vote to become a community participating in the national vehicle identification camera data network, known as "Flock".
BOARD'S CAREFUL DECISION FOR PRIVACY AND DETERENT VALUE
This Flock decision was made, after carefully and appropriately disarming the areas of vulnerabilities and risks that are natural thoughts for anyone, including the Board, when such a system is contemplated. Potential privacy issues, were examined for validity.
The Board was determined to make sure that no one but Law Enforcement had access to the data and that no identifying images of individuals in their vehicles be taken, as well as no information -beyond the details of the back of the vehicles be part of any data.
The Board even asked if Flock would photograph the fronts of vehicles, if asked to do so. Under no cercumstances would they do such -the assurance that we needed about Flock.
If individuals or animals walked in front of the cameras, the Board wanted to make sure that the only data gathered and retained was the image and a time-stamp, in case Law Enforcement had an incident in that time-frame.
Ironically, the Board explored privacy and abuse questions, which even those opposing Flock have not yet brought forward.
WHY NO PUBLIC FORUMS OR SURVEYS ABOUT THIS SUBJECT
The Board of Directors was elected by the Community Owner/Residents to act on your behalf for the appropriate good of the community, as directed by the Bylaws.
All of this volunteer work is taken seriously and never in a vacuum.
The Board is charged with finding solutions to immediate, anticipated, trending, future, and logical problems.
These issues cannot very often involve making them needlessly long and drawn out, unless they have irreversible impact on the Community -like Annual Budgets.
For instance, the Flock systems came out of a 2022 Safer Community Initiative, which the Board has undertaken with the Littleton Police Department to work toward a better preparatory strategy for TrailMark Safety.
In the past decades, municipal strategy for protecting TrailMark has been mostly one of "you call, we respond". This low level strategy has been driven mostly by low incidents reported in TrailMark, no LPD line-budget funding, from City Council, to assign more patrols to TrailMark, and an ever-increasing lack of enough officer resources.
In the past, our Community has stirred up interest in a better dialogue, with LPD, however, it takes a lot of effort to keep the Residents engaged in working with the LPD, when to get appropriate changes to our coverage strategy, City Council has to approve the resources, and that takes time.
Your Board is now committed to a lasting collaboration with the Littleton Police Department to develop innovative strategies to protect our Community.
This initiative is intended not to sunset, due to temporary, or no, action, as in the past.
The Board coordinated with the LPD concerning their suggestion of a Flock-level system to help in so many ways to deter crime coming to TrailMark.
Basically, between their research and ours, it was clear that the Flock systems had no real equals for TrailMark and for the LPD.
The Flock systems were also the only strategy which could help in the crime areas of concern and act as an effective, preductable, ongoing deterrent.
With this information in hand, the Board dove deeply into the Flock systems -to insure TrailMark's Residents' Personal Privacies would be safeguarded, not "appropriately compromized".
Since the Flock systems are not an irreversible action, and because the path to Flock was established, clear, safe, protective and justified, the Board decided to vote on it, at the May Public Board Meeting.
The agenda was published, and on May 17, 2022, the Board brought up Flock, and in order to give the public more time to ask questions, the Board tabled the vote for Flock, until directly after the Meeting. There were no Public issues, brought up, with the Flock Systems. After the meeting, the Board briefly discussed the Flock systems and voted to install them.
Therefore, the Board accomished what the Majority of the Residents elected them to do. That was to responsibly represent the welfare and safety of any decisions, as the pulse of the Residents' Trusted, elected Charges.
The Board is still taking input concerning the Flock Systems, and always will.
Educating Residents about what we know and learning what our Residents know, is healthy and an integral part of our strategy to help TrailMark in a fair, equitable, secure and appropriate manner.
The bottom line is that safety at TrailMark is a dynamic process, and the Board is charged with moving forward with safety and the uncompromising privacy of us all.
The Board has the pulse of the Community, but that will never be absolute.
Everyone, in our Community does not see everything we put out there, and we are working very hard to change that communication situation. This is why surveys are not used. Their statistics are not a good barometers, yet, to all Resident concerns and desires.
UNDERSTANDING FLOCK DATA TYPE AND USE
This initiative has been spoken of at the last three Public HOA Board Meetings.
NOT A SENSATIONAL PARANOID REFLEX DECISION
As an important example of your Board's approach to these systems, your Board would not entertain bloated, crime-statistic scare tactics. We got none from Flock.
The Board did not want to rely on unverifiable, surveillance-supporting claims of crimewaves or hyperboles of success. We got none of those from Flock.
The Board did not write off the value, or risks, of such camera systems just because other Communities badly mishandled their systems or data.
The Board did, however, use the potential abuse of such systems to find out if Flock could be set up to eliminate such privacy, or appearance of privacy risks. Flock was found to have these safeguards.
For instance; it has been reported, to the horror of Residents in many jurisdictions, and to this Board, that community managers and HOA's have the ability to, and do, monitor the data that the systems' cameras generate, and they use the cameras for recorded and real-time survelance, of their residents!
Every Resident should condem those practices and the system and management vulnerabilities that could ever allow such abhorrent practices! The Board did not want personal identification data to even be generated -much less stored and relying on an honor system to protect its misuse. The Board found that Flock systems do not encorporate these personal identification vulnerabilies and have safeguards to prevent, for instance, personal identification surveillance data. Flock identifies vehicles, not owners. Law Enforcement only uses the vehicle data, if they are searching for crime-related vehicles and the vehicle data, matched to a license plate keeps, for instance, a criminal from using a stolen license plate from framing a Resident.
TrailMark has no guards, or gates. Nor does Our Community require regulation of who gets in and who gets out. There is not a single Resident, or anyone, who has the need -or the right, to monitor anyone's personal comings and goings.
With the Flock systems, Law Enforcement is allowed to look over the generated data for vehicles for an incident, or as a response to any crime, like car theft. Otherwise, the data gathered by Flock is never accessed, until it is deleted, every 30 days. A specific vehicle's data can only be retained by Law Enforcement, if it is deemed to be evidence, related to a crime.
Your TrailMark Board emphatically specified that any system that is installed at TrailMark will not be accessible by the HOA, Board, or anyone other than Law Enforcement and only then with specific occurances and crimes in mind.
UNDERSTANDING FLOCK DATA TYPE AND USE
Yes, it is true that only the rear of the vehicles are photographed and that Flock systems are not capturing or matching identities of Residents. This is highly "limited value data".
Even with such limited, low value to the public data, only Law Enforcement will have access to the Flock data, any time, anywhere.
For the Flock system -as specified by your Board, the data will be only be accessed by Law Enforcement, and there will be no monitor-able real-time or recorded survelence for any purpose other than gathering the vehicle specifics, not owner specifics.
There is story, after story -passed around in public forums, and in publications about these type of camera systems being wrong, in their identification of a vehicle's characteristics or license plates. Indeed, there are terrible such camera systems which could misidentify a vehicle. However, Flock systems are not vulnerable to misidentify a vehicle, resulting in the abuse and arrest of the wrong party, because the entire point of carefully matching a vehicle to its license plate is to verify correct data and not to trigger actions to act upon mismatched data about our Residents.
The stories of innocent people being wrestled to the ground, detained, or arrested, because, for instance, someone put a stolen plate on a perpetrator's car, are not verified -just passed around, and they are not about Flock systems.
It is verified that none of those rumors/anedotes are about Flock systems. This is one of the compelling reasons only to use Flock systems. Surveillance is a serious subject, and the veracity, integrity, focused, safe, and non-personally identifying nature of the data is of paramount importance.
Residents can opt-out of the data availability for Law Enforcement, as a "friendly" license plate. Notify the Board, and Flock is notified. However, if the "opt-out" vehicle is stolen, the Flock system will not catch it leaving TrailMark. The Board likes the idea that the Residents can opt out or opt in, any time.
THE FALSE OMNI SURVELLENCE ARGUMENTS
Many communities have argued that you are under surveillance all the time, wherever you go: "Ring-type" doorbells, house cameras, store surveillance, traffic control monitors, venue security cameras...etc......; so, they say, "Why is it such a big deal for this camera system?"
The Board thinks that this argument is ridiculous, and so does Flock. Any surveillance system is a big deal, if it identifies people. In fact, those other types of surveillance systems can photograph all sides of you, or your Family, or your vehicle, and they are unregulated. Even a criminal can set up a trail-camera and photograph your pattern of behaviors.
Flock is limited to the back of vehicles. Those other systems are monitored, stored, and used by any number of unregulated individuals and corporations. Stores sell your individual buying habits. Who knows who is watching the surveillance footage?
That is why the argument that you are already surveilled ad nauseam is a destructive and misleading reason to use Flock systems. Everything about Flock surveillance and data usage is known, restricted, regulated and known by the client. Your Board wants you to be protected, now and in the future, without sacrificing privacy.
The Board also wants you to really know how the Flock systems work, and how they are utilized.......by fact -not fiction or emotional hyperbole, on either side.
ANY CRIMINAL VS. FLOCK
Any criminal can sit on a TrailMark curb and photograph our Residents -coming and going, along with their faces. They can follow them back to their home.
In critical contrast, Flock has strictures, data safeguards and a consistently proven track record of limited data acquisition (vehicle rear-ends only) and high data security, even erasing data after 30 days.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOW DATA TARGET VALUE
The Flock photos and generated vehicle data are valuable only to Law Enforcement and then only as aiding to a specific issue/incident.
Low data target value is highly important in personal privacy protection. The Board knows this, and that is why Flock and your Board's specifications and safeguards for a Flock system are so important.
NO GRAND CRIME WAVE
Your Board is not installing the Flock systems because there is a wave of crime hitting us, about to or predictable.
Nevertheless, it would be wholly irresponsible for your Board to ignore very real trends in crime in Colorado and in the Nation. TrailMark has had over twenty-three years of almost no crime, while other cities and neighborhoods have only seen National crime trends (exponential increases in many cases) enter their streets: stolen vehicles used to committ crimes, gang theft of catalytic converters, standing copper sprinkler pipes sawed off, car thefts, swarm break-ins, garage breaches, car-scouting for on-demant stolen parts, and ever-increasing drive-by violence..........
Here in TrailMark, we have seen little or none of these things. You take a stroll, and even the trained Law Enforcement eye sees no imminent crimes.
Unfortunately, incidents of nefarious activities, especially late at night are being observed, as on the increase, in the surrounding communities, as well as in TrailMark: doors tested, individuals walking behind houses, non-neighborhood vehicles moving slowly through the neighborhoods -cycling back......
These nefarious incidents are not being reported to the Littleton Police Department (LPD) in proportion to their apparent occurances. The Board is starting to encourage our Residents to report these incidents to the LPD.
As well, any active Law Enforcement officer, today, will tell you that just because you do not see it, does not mean that it is not there.
There is a valuable difference between paranoid and being appropriately proactive and prepared. This Board knows that salient difference, and is working proactively, because, once our isolated community is more actively seen as a ripe target for crime, it will be hard to prevent.
When we all come home to TrailMark, we want to feel safe, and actually be safe. We also do not want a fortress of compromised personal privacy traded, for a "wall and guards".
Importantly, we also cannot just "will away" our real potential threats. We have a wonderful community and wonderful things. There is nothing that will not attract a criminal element, from a yet untapped high-value community. The Flock Systems give us the ability to help protect our valued community using focused, low value data.
YOUR EYES ADD CRITICAL VALUE
The over 6,000 active eyes in TrailMark can give time and incident value to Law Enforcement's exclusive use of TrailMark's focused, normally low-value, Flock data.
However, the incidents, here, alone do not warrant panic or paranoia. The trends of all the above, and more, increasing in, for instance, Denver, Lakewood, etc. are something the Board believes that they should be very much aware of -in criminal behavior migrating to healthy, nice, untouched communities, like TrailMark.
Just because TrailMark has not been "hit" by the increasing crime waves, like catalytic converter theft, does not mean that our Community has some kind of immunity, from such.
ISOLATION DOES NOT EQUATE TO SAFETY
Speak to current Law Enforcement, and they will tell you that the very isolation that may have delayed more crime in our community may be the very reason that once discovered, along with the surprising quality of TrailMark, we will become more and more of a target for criminals. This, again, is not paranoid observation, or "fleeting" behavior but rather a logical, time-proven fact, "criminals like things, and we've got a lot of things". Our Community is simply trying to be realistic, informed and smart about what we have, here in TrailMark.
PARANOIA HAS NO HOME HERE
The Board is as far from paranoid, as you can get. Yet, foresight -based on actual crime trends, is laudable, and your Board, having consulted with Law Enforcement, feels that preparing now, and having the very real illegal-activity-deterrent that most of the Flock systems are, it is a prudent thing to do, well before crime problems develop here.
NO FUNDING "ROBIN HOOD" TACTICS
The Board is not robbing one coffer to fill another. The Board allocates funds as they will be best utilized for the community,, and where one area accomplished a budget's intent, and not all its budgeted funds were utilized, the Board can move those expected surplus funds to still address the goals and mission of the Board.
THE BOARD IS NOT AN ENFORCER
The Board is not an enforcer of social contract laws, nor is it interested in doing anything but protecting our Resident's privacy. With those things in mind, the Board believes that it would be irresponsible to wait until there are problems (when TrailMark is in the crosshairs of crime), to try to get Law Enforcement to act, or to install Flock Systems.
DETERENTS VS PERSPECTIVE CHANGES
Flock is a very real deterrent to crime. For obvious reasons, criminals loath being photographed, even if just of their vehicles' rear-ends......... true since cameras were invented Except some infamous Western Outlaws, who thought it was a kick to do so).
For this reason, the Board does not want the Flock cameras, and their signs to be hidden. Because "dumb camera) Flock systems are never allowed, Flock systems always mean :active", in justified reputation.
It has been said that no one wants to drive into their neighborhood and feel like they are being watched. Actually, we know of no one who wants such. This is why no one would stand for individuals being constantly photographed every time the exit or enter TrailMark. If you drive Express lanes, or toll roads, your personal information is attached to your license plate. With Flock systems you personal information is not known; so, it cannot be attached.
On the other hand and importantly so, the Board believes that when you actually know what and how the Flock systems operate and the actual caretakership of the data, then driving in or out of TrailMark will actually be reassuring, knowing that should something bad occur, or a stolen car is coming in, or exiting, that our Flock systems are ready to give Law Enforcement a very specific, focused tool to mitigate our risks.
■■■ EXTRA NOTES -SOME RECAP AND EXPLANATIONS
OVERVIEW OF FLOCK USE AND YOUR BOARD
In order to identify stolen and/or nefarious vehicles entering or exiting our Community, Law Enforcement can utilize information about vehicles and their license plates, with time-stamps for their movements.
The nation-wide Flock network allows any Law Enforcement jurisdiction, with specific community permission, to search those Flock captured databases to identify vehicles used for dishonest reasons.
WHY TRAILMARK
TrailMark is going to participate with Flock, because their systems have been shown to be a significant deterrent to vehicle-related crime, without jeopardizing personal privacy (For instance Castle Rock, Colorado).
WHEN
In about seven weeks, or less, Flock will be installing two of their high-resolution day/night cameras on poles at the entrance and exit to TrailMark.
FOLKS UNDERSTANDABLY GET FIRED UP
There is no end to folks, our Residents or not, enthusiastically dredging up anything to support either side of this Flock issue, with misinformation and inflammatory snap-conclusions -cloaked in every imaginable rationale why the Flock system is "Big Brother" and their Board of Directors is out of their minds, or why the Flock systems will stop ALL of our crimes -now and in the future. Neither side is right, but their enthusiasm is welcomed.
Specific to TrailMark, some social media lights up with anything to rile up Residents about "constant surveillance and mapping of our behaviors", while baselessly criticizing Flock as using sensationalism, and bloated fear statistics to sell their systems. Flock does nothing of the sort.
Incredibly, in spite of misleading articles -about other surveillance systems and HOAs, heated discussions and sensationalized anedotes, with no back-up data, the opponents of our Flock systems are engaging in great discussions, with both sides of the issue learning. These discussions are a real positive for our Community.
Emphasized because it is great; Out of all the enthusiastic detractors, who have jumped on the social bandwagon against Flock, a few have seriously, and enthusiastically written the Board, and shown respect to discuss why the Board believes as it does and also why they believe as they do. This is excellent. These correspondents have also helped the Board consider many points again, just to be extra cautious.
PRIVACY, SAFETY, AND A FOUNDATION FOR SECURITY
The Board is as concerned as anyone, about the security, privacy and safety of anyone, by especially TrailMark Residents -our neighbors. Residents should not assume anything else, as the Board's track record -for years, has clearly illustrated its hard work, concern, empathy and researched decisions for TrailMark Residents and their personal and properties' protection.
The great part is that TrailMark has a Board, which does not make rash, dangerous or personal-privacy compromising decisions.
DETERENTS
Aa mentioned, Castle Rock, Colorado, is a prime example of the Flock systems clearly reducing crime........so much so that the Littleton Police Department is heading towards deploying Flock systems.
TrailMark is seeing a much higher (than in its existence -as a community) levels of suspicious drive-throughs, and neighborhood non-resident foot traffic, which had to arrive and leave by vehicles.
Most of this unusual activity happens very late at night, and the Board and Law Enforcement have seen that our Residents are under-reporting -to Law Enforcement, what they observe.
The possible trend for criminal behavior in our community is becoming too great to ignore. As mentioned before, the amount of observed incidents are rising, but clearly Under-Reported, incredibly, even when video exists.
The Board is not reacting to the current level of TrailMark nefarious incidents, possible trend here, but rather their actions are based on deterring/mitigating future attempts to harm our Community.
THE CAMERAS CAPTURE
These cameras will be mounted on twelve-foot, black poles with identifying signs, and they will photograph and log data 24/7 to the cloud.
As mentioned, and by design, the Flock cameras only capture vehicle's rear-ends, which are entering or exiting TrailMark, and the cameras immediately upload the images to their secure servers, which then allow Flock to determine the make, model, color and license plate numder and any other distinguishing characteristics.
WHEN & WHERE THE CAPTURED DATA GOES
The photos generated will be instantly, and securely uploaded to Flocks servers and immediately available to any specific Law Enforcement inquiries, for vehicle issues.
Kindly Note: All photographs and data are kept under Flock's secure control and are never accessible by the public or businesses. Flock is a very progressive and serious, professional tool for law enforcement and never an HOA, social or business tool.
The Littleton Police Department is moving toward deploying Flock systems sometime in the future. In fact, they were the ones who introduced us to Flock.
However, and importantly so, before the Littleton Police Department's system deployments, they will have access to any Flock systems, like ours and any other Flock participant's data and alerts, like Castle Rock's Flock data systems.
The Flock Systems, by the real-time and archived data that they generate for the Flock network of jurisdictions, have been shown a significant metric of reduced crime. For instance, Castle Rock has so much success with Flock's influence on vehicle-related crime reduction that they got the Littleton Police Department's attention.
Along with our new, continuing, and already helpful, dialogues, with the Littleton Police Department, concerning disperate, classic and progressive ways to make TrailMark safer, the Board is very excited about the Flock systems as part of our safer TrailMark Collaborative Initiative.
■■■■ NOW, and once TrailMark's Flock systems are installed, if you see or are the victim of, any nefarious or criminal activity -of any type, CALL THE LITTLETON POLICE!
After TrailMark's Flock systems are operational, when you talk to LPD, you will be able to tell them that you are in a "Flock Community!"
They will of course know that we are a "Flock Community"; however, this could help dispatch react faster for getting the appropriate correct LPD searches on Flock.
If you have additional questions, kindly email me directly, and with your patience, we will discuss Flock.
Kind regards.
Bill
TrailMark Board Secretary
Sec@trailmarkhoa.org
by TrailMark HOA board member Bill Kuenning
Here is information concerning the range of kind inquiries that the Board received:
[Kindly note: I am a Member of the Board and will address theses topics as both "The Board" and "we". There may also be some redundancies, in order to address ancillary issues.]
■■■■ The TrailMark Board of Directors is pleased to announce our recent unanimous vote to become a community participating in the national vehicle identification camera data network, known as "Flock".
BOARD'S CAREFUL DECISION FOR PRIVACY AND DETERENT VALUE
This Flock decision was made, after carefully and appropriately disarming the areas of vulnerabilities and risks that are natural thoughts for anyone, including the Board, when such a system is contemplated. Potential privacy issues, were examined for validity.
The Board was determined to make sure that no one but Law Enforcement had access to the data and that no identifying images of individuals in their vehicles be taken, as well as no information -beyond the details of the back of the vehicles be part of any data.
The Board even asked if Flock would photograph the fronts of vehicles, if asked to do so. Under no cercumstances would they do such -the assurance that we needed about Flock.
If individuals or animals walked in front of the cameras, the Board wanted to make sure that the only data gathered and retained was the image and a time-stamp, in case Law Enforcement had an incident in that time-frame.
Ironically, the Board explored privacy and abuse questions, which even those opposing Flock have not yet brought forward.
WHY NO PUBLIC FORUMS OR SURVEYS ABOUT THIS SUBJECT
The Board of Directors was elected by the Community Owner/Residents to act on your behalf for the appropriate good of the community, as directed by the Bylaws.
All of this volunteer work is taken seriously and never in a vacuum.
The Board is charged with finding solutions to immediate, anticipated, trending, future, and logical problems.
These issues cannot very often involve making them needlessly long and drawn out, unless they have irreversible impact on the Community -like Annual Budgets.
For instance, the Flock systems came out of a 2022 Safer Community Initiative, which the Board has undertaken with the Littleton Police Department to work toward a better preparatory strategy for TrailMark Safety.
In the past decades, municipal strategy for protecting TrailMark has been mostly one of "you call, we respond". This low level strategy has been driven mostly by low incidents reported in TrailMark, no LPD line-budget funding, from City Council, to assign more patrols to TrailMark, and an ever-increasing lack of enough officer resources.
In the past, our Community has stirred up interest in a better dialogue, with LPD, however, it takes a lot of effort to keep the Residents engaged in working with the LPD, when to get appropriate changes to our coverage strategy, City Council has to approve the resources, and that takes time.
Your Board is now committed to a lasting collaboration with the Littleton Police Department to develop innovative strategies to protect our Community.
This initiative is intended not to sunset, due to temporary, or no, action, as in the past.
The Board coordinated with the LPD concerning their suggestion of a Flock-level system to help in so many ways to deter crime coming to TrailMark.
Basically, between their research and ours, it was clear that the Flock systems had no real equals for TrailMark and for the LPD.
The Flock systems were also the only strategy which could help in the crime areas of concern and act as an effective, preductable, ongoing deterrent.
With this information in hand, the Board dove deeply into the Flock systems -to insure TrailMark's Residents' Personal Privacies would be safeguarded, not "appropriately compromized".
Since the Flock systems are not an irreversible action, and because the path to Flock was established, clear, safe, protective and justified, the Board decided to vote on it, at the May Public Board Meeting.
The agenda was published, and on May 17, 2022, the Board brought up Flock, and in order to give the public more time to ask questions, the Board tabled the vote for Flock, until directly after the Meeting. There were no Public issues, brought up, with the Flock Systems. After the meeting, the Board briefly discussed the Flock systems and voted to install them.
Therefore, the Board accomished what the Majority of the Residents elected them to do. That was to responsibly represent the welfare and safety of any decisions, as the pulse of the Residents' Trusted, elected Charges.
The Board is still taking input concerning the Flock Systems, and always will.
Educating Residents about what we know and learning what our Residents know, is healthy and an integral part of our strategy to help TrailMark in a fair, equitable, secure and appropriate manner.
The bottom line is that safety at TrailMark is a dynamic process, and the Board is charged with moving forward with safety and the uncompromising privacy of us all.
The Board has the pulse of the Community, but that will never be absolute.
Everyone, in our Community does not see everything we put out there, and we are working very hard to change that communication situation. This is why surveys are not used. Their statistics are not a good barometers, yet, to all Resident concerns and desires.
UNDERSTANDING FLOCK DATA TYPE AND USE
This initiative has been spoken of at the last three Public HOA Board Meetings.
NOT A SENSATIONAL PARANOID REFLEX DECISION
As an important example of your Board's approach to these systems, your Board would not entertain bloated, crime-statistic scare tactics. We got none from Flock.
The Board did not want to rely on unverifiable, surveillance-supporting claims of crimewaves or hyperboles of success. We got none of those from Flock.
The Board did not write off the value, or risks, of such camera systems just because other Communities badly mishandled their systems or data.
The Board did, however, use the potential abuse of such systems to find out if Flock could be set up to eliminate such privacy, or appearance of privacy risks. Flock was found to have these safeguards.
For instance; it has been reported, to the horror of Residents in many jurisdictions, and to this Board, that community managers and HOA's have the ability to, and do, monitor the data that the systems' cameras generate, and they use the cameras for recorded and real-time survelance, of their residents!
Every Resident should condem those practices and the system and management vulnerabilities that could ever allow such abhorrent practices! The Board did not want personal identification data to even be generated -much less stored and relying on an honor system to protect its misuse. The Board found that Flock systems do not encorporate these personal identification vulnerabilies and have safeguards to prevent, for instance, personal identification surveillance data. Flock identifies vehicles, not owners. Law Enforcement only uses the vehicle data, if they are searching for crime-related vehicles and the vehicle data, matched to a license plate keeps, for instance, a criminal from using a stolen license plate from framing a Resident.
TrailMark has no guards, or gates. Nor does Our Community require regulation of who gets in and who gets out. There is not a single Resident, or anyone, who has the need -or the right, to monitor anyone's personal comings and goings.
With the Flock systems, Law Enforcement is allowed to look over the generated data for vehicles for an incident, or as a response to any crime, like car theft. Otherwise, the data gathered by Flock is never accessed, until it is deleted, every 30 days. A specific vehicle's data can only be retained by Law Enforcement, if it is deemed to be evidence, related to a crime.
Your TrailMark Board emphatically specified that any system that is installed at TrailMark will not be accessible by the HOA, Board, or anyone other than Law Enforcement and only then with specific occurances and crimes in mind.
UNDERSTANDING FLOCK DATA TYPE AND USE
Yes, it is true that only the rear of the vehicles are photographed and that Flock systems are not capturing or matching identities of Residents. This is highly "limited value data".
Even with such limited, low value to the public data, only Law Enforcement will have access to the Flock data, any time, anywhere.
For the Flock system -as specified by your Board, the data will be only be accessed by Law Enforcement, and there will be no monitor-able real-time or recorded survelence for any purpose other than gathering the vehicle specifics, not owner specifics.
There is story, after story -passed around in public forums, and in publications about these type of camera systems being wrong, in their identification of a vehicle's characteristics or license plates. Indeed, there are terrible such camera systems which could misidentify a vehicle. However, Flock systems are not vulnerable to misidentify a vehicle, resulting in the abuse and arrest of the wrong party, because the entire point of carefully matching a vehicle to its license plate is to verify correct data and not to trigger actions to act upon mismatched data about our Residents.
The stories of innocent people being wrestled to the ground, detained, or arrested, because, for instance, someone put a stolen plate on a perpetrator's car, are not verified -just passed around, and they are not about Flock systems.
It is verified that none of those rumors/anedotes are about Flock systems. This is one of the compelling reasons only to use Flock systems. Surveillance is a serious subject, and the veracity, integrity, focused, safe, and non-personally identifying nature of the data is of paramount importance.
Residents can opt-out of the data availability for Law Enforcement, as a "friendly" license plate. Notify the Board, and Flock is notified. However, if the "opt-out" vehicle is stolen, the Flock system will not catch it leaving TrailMark. The Board likes the idea that the Residents can opt out or opt in, any time.
THE FALSE OMNI SURVELLENCE ARGUMENTS
Many communities have argued that you are under surveillance all the time, wherever you go: "Ring-type" doorbells, house cameras, store surveillance, traffic control monitors, venue security cameras...etc......; so, they say, "Why is it such a big deal for this camera system?"
The Board thinks that this argument is ridiculous, and so does Flock. Any surveillance system is a big deal, if it identifies people. In fact, those other types of surveillance systems can photograph all sides of you, or your Family, or your vehicle, and they are unregulated. Even a criminal can set up a trail-camera and photograph your pattern of behaviors.
Flock is limited to the back of vehicles. Those other systems are monitored, stored, and used by any number of unregulated individuals and corporations. Stores sell your individual buying habits. Who knows who is watching the surveillance footage?
That is why the argument that you are already surveilled ad nauseam is a destructive and misleading reason to use Flock systems. Everything about Flock surveillance and data usage is known, restricted, regulated and known by the client. Your Board wants you to be protected, now and in the future, without sacrificing privacy.
The Board also wants you to really know how the Flock systems work, and how they are utilized.......by fact -not fiction or emotional hyperbole, on either side.
ANY CRIMINAL VS. FLOCK
Any criminal can sit on a TrailMark curb and photograph our Residents -coming and going, along with their faces. They can follow them back to their home.
In critical contrast, Flock has strictures, data safeguards and a consistently proven track record of limited data acquisition (vehicle rear-ends only) and high data security, even erasing data after 30 days.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOW DATA TARGET VALUE
The Flock photos and generated vehicle data are valuable only to Law Enforcement and then only as aiding to a specific issue/incident.
Low data target value is highly important in personal privacy protection. The Board knows this, and that is why Flock and your Board's specifications and safeguards for a Flock system are so important.
NO GRAND CRIME WAVE
Your Board is not installing the Flock systems because there is a wave of crime hitting us, about to or predictable.
Nevertheless, it would be wholly irresponsible for your Board to ignore very real trends in crime in Colorado and in the Nation. TrailMark has had over twenty-three years of almost no crime, while other cities and neighborhoods have only seen National crime trends (exponential increases in many cases) enter their streets: stolen vehicles used to committ crimes, gang theft of catalytic converters, standing copper sprinkler pipes sawed off, car thefts, swarm break-ins, garage breaches, car-scouting for on-demant stolen parts, and ever-increasing drive-by violence..........
Here in TrailMark, we have seen little or none of these things. You take a stroll, and even the trained Law Enforcement eye sees no imminent crimes.
Unfortunately, incidents of nefarious activities, especially late at night are being observed, as on the increase, in the surrounding communities, as well as in TrailMark: doors tested, individuals walking behind houses, non-neighborhood vehicles moving slowly through the neighborhoods -cycling back......
These nefarious incidents are not being reported to the Littleton Police Department (LPD) in proportion to their apparent occurances. The Board is starting to encourage our Residents to report these incidents to the LPD.
As well, any active Law Enforcement officer, today, will tell you that just because you do not see it, does not mean that it is not there.
There is a valuable difference between paranoid and being appropriately proactive and prepared. This Board knows that salient difference, and is working proactively, because, once our isolated community is more actively seen as a ripe target for crime, it will be hard to prevent.
When we all come home to TrailMark, we want to feel safe, and actually be safe. We also do not want a fortress of compromised personal privacy traded, for a "wall and guards".
Importantly, we also cannot just "will away" our real potential threats. We have a wonderful community and wonderful things. There is nothing that will not attract a criminal element, from a yet untapped high-value community. The Flock Systems give us the ability to help protect our valued community using focused, low value data.
YOUR EYES ADD CRITICAL VALUE
The over 6,000 active eyes in TrailMark can give time and incident value to Law Enforcement's exclusive use of TrailMark's focused, normally low-value, Flock data.
However, the incidents, here, alone do not warrant panic or paranoia. The trends of all the above, and more, increasing in, for instance, Denver, Lakewood, etc. are something the Board believes that they should be very much aware of -in criminal behavior migrating to healthy, nice, untouched communities, like TrailMark.
Just because TrailMark has not been "hit" by the increasing crime waves, like catalytic converter theft, does not mean that our Community has some kind of immunity, from such.
ISOLATION DOES NOT EQUATE TO SAFETY
Speak to current Law Enforcement, and they will tell you that the very isolation that may have delayed more crime in our community may be the very reason that once discovered, along with the surprising quality of TrailMark, we will become more and more of a target for criminals. This, again, is not paranoid observation, or "fleeting" behavior but rather a logical, time-proven fact, "criminals like things, and we've got a lot of things". Our Community is simply trying to be realistic, informed and smart about what we have, here in TrailMark.
PARANOIA HAS NO HOME HERE
The Board is as far from paranoid, as you can get. Yet, foresight -based on actual crime trends, is laudable, and your Board, having consulted with Law Enforcement, feels that preparing now, and having the very real illegal-activity-deterrent that most of the Flock systems are, it is a prudent thing to do, well before crime problems develop here.
NO FUNDING "ROBIN HOOD" TACTICS
The Board is not robbing one coffer to fill another. The Board allocates funds as they will be best utilized for the community,, and where one area accomplished a budget's intent, and not all its budgeted funds were utilized, the Board can move those expected surplus funds to still address the goals and mission of the Board.
THE BOARD IS NOT AN ENFORCER
The Board is not an enforcer of social contract laws, nor is it interested in doing anything but protecting our Resident's privacy. With those things in mind, the Board believes that it would be irresponsible to wait until there are problems (when TrailMark is in the crosshairs of crime), to try to get Law Enforcement to act, or to install Flock Systems.
DETERENTS VS PERSPECTIVE CHANGES
Flock is a very real deterrent to crime. For obvious reasons, criminals loath being photographed, even if just of their vehicles' rear-ends......... true since cameras were invented Except some infamous Western Outlaws, who thought it was a kick to do so).
For this reason, the Board does not want the Flock cameras, and their signs to be hidden. Because "dumb camera) Flock systems are never allowed, Flock systems always mean :active", in justified reputation.
It has been said that no one wants to drive into their neighborhood and feel like they are being watched. Actually, we know of no one who wants such. This is why no one would stand for individuals being constantly photographed every time the exit or enter TrailMark. If you drive Express lanes, or toll roads, your personal information is attached to your license plate. With Flock systems you personal information is not known; so, it cannot be attached.
On the other hand and importantly so, the Board believes that when you actually know what and how the Flock systems operate and the actual caretakership of the data, then driving in or out of TrailMark will actually be reassuring, knowing that should something bad occur, or a stolen car is coming in, or exiting, that our Flock systems are ready to give Law Enforcement a very specific, focused tool to mitigate our risks.
■■■ EXTRA NOTES -SOME RECAP AND EXPLANATIONS
OVERVIEW OF FLOCK USE AND YOUR BOARD
In order to identify stolen and/or nefarious vehicles entering or exiting our Community, Law Enforcement can utilize information about vehicles and their license plates, with time-stamps for their movements.
The nation-wide Flock network allows any Law Enforcement jurisdiction, with specific community permission, to search those Flock captured databases to identify vehicles used for dishonest reasons.
WHY TRAILMARK
TrailMark is going to participate with Flock, because their systems have been shown to be a significant deterrent to vehicle-related crime, without jeopardizing personal privacy (For instance Castle Rock, Colorado).
WHEN
In about seven weeks, or less, Flock will be installing two of their high-resolution day/night cameras on poles at the entrance and exit to TrailMark.
FOLKS UNDERSTANDABLY GET FIRED UP
There is no end to folks, our Residents or not, enthusiastically dredging up anything to support either side of this Flock issue, with misinformation and inflammatory snap-conclusions -cloaked in every imaginable rationale why the Flock system is "Big Brother" and their Board of Directors is out of their minds, or why the Flock systems will stop ALL of our crimes -now and in the future. Neither side is right, but their enthusiasm is welcomed.
Specific to TrailMark, some social media lights up with anything to rile up Residents about "constant surveillance and mapping of our behaviors", while baselessly criticizing Flock as using sensationalism, and bloated fear statistics to sell their systems. Flock does nothing of the sort.
Incredibly, in spite of misleading articles -about other surveillance systems and HOAs, heated discussions and sensationalized anedotes, with no back-up data, the opponents of our Flock systems are engaging in great discussions, with both sides of the issue learning. These discussions are a real positive for our Community.
Emphasized because it is great; Out of all the enthusiastic detractors, who have jumped on the social bandwagon against Flock, a few have seriously, and enthusiastically written the Board, and shown respect to discuss why the Board believes as it does and also why they believe as they do. This is excellent. These correspondents have also helped the Board consider many points again, just to be extra cautious.
PRIVACY, SAFETY, AND A FOUNDATION FOR SECURITY
The Board is as concerned as anyone, about the security, privacy and safety of anyone, by especially TrailMark Residents -our neighbors. Residents should not assume anything else, as the Board's track record -for years, has clearly illustrated its hard work, concern, empathy and researched decisions for TrailMark Residents and their personal and properties' protection.
The great part is that TrailMark has a Board, which does not make rash, dangerous or personal-privacy compromising decisions.
DETERENTS
Aa mentioned, Castle Rock, Colorado, is a prime example of the Flock systems clearly reducing crime........so much so that the Littleton Police Department is heading towards deploying Flock systems.
TrailMark is seeing a much higher (than in its existence -as a community) levels of suspicious drive-throughs, and neighborhood non-resident foot traffic, which had to arrive and leave by vehicles.
Most of this unusual activity happens very late at night, and the Board and Law Enforcement have seen that our Residents are under-reporting -to Law Enforcement, what they observe.
The possible trend for criminal behavior in our community is becoming too great to ignore. As mentioned before, the amount of observed incidents are rising, but clearly Under-Reported, incredibly, even when video exists.
The Board is not reacting to the current level of TrailMark nefarious incidents, possible trend here, but rather their actions are based on deterring/mitigating future attempts to harm our Community.
THE CAMERAS CAPTURE
These cameras will be mounted on twelve-foot, black poles with identifying signs, and they will photograph and log data 24/7 to the cloud.
As mentioned, and by design, the Flock cameras only capture vehicle's rear-ends, which are entering or exiting TrailMark, and the cameras immediately upload the images to their secure servers, which then allow Flock to determine the make, model, color and license plate numder and any other distinguishing characteristics.
WHEN & WHERE THE CAPTURED DATA GOES
The photos generated will be instantly, and securely uploaded to Flocks servers and immediately available to any specific Law Enforcement inquiries, for vehicle issues.
Kindly Note: All photographs and data are kept under Flock's secure control and are never accessible by the public or businesses. Flock is a very progressive and serious, professional tool for law enforcement and never an HOA, social or business tool.
The Littleton Police Department is moving toward deploying Flock systems sometime in the future. In fact, they were the ones who introduced us to Flock.
However, and importantly so, before the Littleton Police Department's system deployments, they will have access to any Flock systems, like ours and any other Flock participant's data and alerts, like Castle Rock's Flock data systems.
The Flock Systems, by the real-time and archived data that they generate for the Flock network of jurisdictions, have been shown a significant metric of reduced crime. For instance, Castle Rock has so much success with Flock's influence on vehicle-related crime reduction that they got the Littleton Police Department's attention.
Along with our new, continuing, and already helpful, dialogues, with the Littleton Police Department, concerning disperate, classic and progressive ways to make TrailMark safer, the Board is very excited about the Flock systems as part of our safer TrailMark Collaborative Initiative.
■■■■ NOW, and once TrailMark's Flock systems are installed, if you see or are the victim of, any nefarious or criminal activity -of any type, CALL THE LITTLETON POLICE!
After TrailMark's Flock systems are operational, when you talk to LPD, you will be able to tell them that you are in a "Flock Community!"
They will of course know that we are a "Flock Community"; however, this could help dispatch react faster for getting the appropriate correct LPD searches on Flock.
If you have additional questions, kindly email me directly, and with your patience, we will discuss Flock.
Kind regards.
Bill
TrailMark Board Secretary
Sec@trailmarkhoa.org
