Lehighton is Flocked

According to DeFlock and Carbon County GIS, Lehighton has four cameras, each one positioned just on the Borough's borders, watching everyone who comes and goes. If you were to drive on Route 248 up to the Walmart on Route 443, you would be caught by at least five different Flock ALPR cameras.

On July 13, Lehighton completed its RTK request and admitted that it does not control any of its Flock cameras. Their report states they do not have contracts with Flock Safety and only two cameras are on their property, one controlled by Mahoning Township and another by Franklin. Specifically, Franklin has a camera "on Borough Utility Pole E-TS-01 located along Route 209 and Route 248 near the McCall Bridge." Mahoning has its camera "on Borough Utility Pole P20 located along Blakeslee Boulevard."

The wording of Franklin's camera location in the license agreement is misleading. I did independent research and found Pole E-TS-01 is actually the pole intersecting Route 209 and Route 443, not Route 209 and Route 248. The camera at the intersection of Rt 248 and Rt 209 is almost certainly a camera that Franklin Township installed without approval from other municipalities. This could mean that the license agreement isn't legally sound, but nobody is going to do anything about it if Lehighton and Franklin still agree that the camera can be there. And if Lehighton is to be convinced that the camera shouldn't be there, they can simply go easy on Franklin and allow it its 30 days anyway.

The Bottom Line:

Both of the municipal agreements state Lehighton can terminate them at any time with as little as a thirty-day notice. This makes it incredibly easy for Lehighton to DeFlock itself since responsibility falls on the other municipalities to physically remove the cameras. Lehighton Borough can rid itself of unconstitutional technology and reinforce its community trust, we just need to tell them to stop the Flock.