ROBINSON, Texas (KXXV) — Residents in Robinson are taking action over surveillance technology in their neighborhood, with a small group working to gather hundreds of signatures needed to bring a potential ban before the city council.
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Cody Fielder drafted the petition 4 months ago when he first noticed Flock cameras around town. Even though the cameras have since been cancelled, he believes the petition remains crucial for preventing future surveillance.
"The goal of the petition would be to ban any AI cameras within the city of Robinson," Fielder said.
Though Fielder started the petition months ago, it wasn't until a recent city council meeting that he found enough support to move forward.
"It wasn't until the meeting last week, when everyone started to really make their opinions known, that I was able to find enough people to get the required 5 signatures to start the petition," Fielder said.
Through that meeting, Fielder connected with neighbors and formed a group of 5 to begin collecting signatures. However, Mayor Greg May says they will need far more before the council can take action.
"That would be 595 signatures that they would need," May said.
May says he wants what is best for the community, but is not rushing into a decision.
"If I ban everything, then we're going to have a whole long road ahead trying to go backwards. I wanna take it slow and do it right," May said.
Police Chief Larry Adams echoed those concerns about a broad ban.
"The petition going around, I'm not in favor of that; that really restricts future capabilities that may not infringe upon the civil liberties that they're talking about," Adams said.
If the petition gathers enough signatures, the city council can either approve it directly or put it on the ballot for voters next year. May said he hopes an agreement can be reached before that happens, which would save taxpayers roughly $10,000 in election costs.
City council will discuss what an ordinance of this kind could look like at their next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. May said it will be an ongoing conversation.
"We don't wanna just do one meeting and decide to just put a hiatus on everything we need to do more research. We've already said I wish I would have done more research in the beginning. Now I'm gonna do a whole lot of research," May said.
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