By admin 
Another Midlands community is adding Flock Safety cameras, this time in a private development.
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Saluda River Club is in the process of upgrading its camera system to including Flock license-plate readers, and was turned down for permission to add two more to a public right-of-way.
The community, between the Saluda River and Corley Mill Road in Lexington County, is just the latest area to add the cameras, which record the license plates of passing cars and temporarily store the information for potential future law enforcement investigations.
The property owners association approved the addition of the license-plate reading cameras this summer, mostly as an upgrade to the community’s existing security camera system, said Andy White, the president of River Club-developer Lifestone Homes.
“Our board of directors recognized the camera technology that has been in place since 2008 is out of date,” White told The State. “They evaluated all the possibilities and determined the Flock license-plate readers would be the best option.”
White said he wasn’t sure where on the 235-acre development the cameras would be placed other than the entrances off Corley Mill at River Club Road and Waterstone Drive. A crowd-sourced map on the website DeFlock.org show at least four Flock cameras currently located throughout the development.
An email from The State to the Saluda River Club property owners association received an automated reply directing a reporter to Sentry Management, which provides services to Saluda River Club. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the POA’s decision regarding the cameras.
White said he wasn’t involved in the decision himself, but told The State was supportive of the community’s move to Flock.
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“The board of directors has taken steps to replace an outdated camera system, and if this license-plate reading technology is the best available and will cut down on burglary or vandalism or theft as much as the system we put in 18 years ago, then I’m not opposed to it,” White told The State.
But residents who spoke to The State said the cameras had stirred up a hornet’s nest in neighborhood chats since they first went up over the summer.
“My number one concern was they were put up in the dead of the night, and we had no input,” said River Club resident Terri Hartley. She and her neighbors also noticed some cameras seemed to be pointed towards the community swimming pool and a playground area. “I mean, who wants their child on camera?”
Hartley said she isn’t opposed to security cameras in the neighborhood, but she was suspicious of Atlanta-based Flock Safety, which can make data from its cameras shareable with other law enforcement agencies it contracts with as well as private clients like the Saluda River Club.
“Where is the data going?” Hartley asked. “Who has access to the data? Could any person with any knowledge of a computer just hack into this system? It seems too sketchy.”
Lexington County received a request Aug. 13 to place two license-plate readers on a pole in a public right-of-way in the 700-home development, where many roads have since been added to the county maintenance system. A county spokesperson said that request was turned down by planning staff based on guidance from the S.C. Department of Transportation, which is currently not allowing new cameras to be installed along state roadways.
While several agencies around the Columbia area use Flock and similar cameras to record license plates, other South Carolina communities are less supportive of the technology. Last month, Oconee County Council voted to ban license-plate readers in its county, and the city of Greer has bagged its cameras during a 90-day pause after two police officers were removed for abusing the system.
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