By admin 
A South Carolina city is pausing its Flock cameras for 90 days after two police officers were fired for allegedly misusing the license plate-monitoring system.
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The city of Greer this week decided to pause its use of cameras manufactured by Flock Safety for 90 days in response to the news out of the local police department, according to reports from multiple media outlets in the Upstate.
In the meantime, the city’s 10 cameras will be covered by plastic bags.
“How are we implementing the program, and does it unreasonably violate your personal privacy?” Greer Administrator Andy Merriman told local TV station WYFF. “And I think that’s what this 90 days is doing.”
The pause went into effect Aug. 21, the Greenville News reports. The move comes in response to the firings in the Greer Police Department, where two officers were accused of conducting unauthorized searches and entering false information to conceal their activities, the News said.
“We did fire two officers over it,” City Councilman Paul Lamb told WSPA. “We have to make sure we are doing things correctly.”
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During the pause, the city of 35,000 will review the system’s effectiveness, how it’s being used and any privacy concerns.
The solar-powered cameras, manufactured by Atlanta-based Flock Safety, record the license plates of passing cars and allow police to search for a particular vehicle’s movements for up to 30 days. They’ve become a popular law enforcement tool across the country.
But as the camera network spreads across the country, activists have become concern about the potential for abuse of such a comprehensive database of everyday citizens’ comings and goings. Stories of police officers misusing the system have been publicized, and Oconee County in western South Carolina recently passed a total ban on license-plate readers.
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