Thomasville Residents ask for the removal of City Council Members Wanda Warren and Todd Mobley and for Transparency

In the Thomasville City Council meeting held on Monday, residents Jennifer Dyson and Thomas County NAACP President, Lucinda Brown, had a list of demands and one of them included the removal of Wanda Warren and Todd Mobley.

Community members have been showing up to council meetings with concern about the new Flock system that many feels are invading their privacy. One of these members is Lucinda Brown, who has been vocal about the Flock system since it was first brought to her attention, which is being installed only within the Thomasville District 1 community, and is being called discriminatory.

It's an invasion of privacy and it draws concerns about where their personal information is going and who controls it. The 15 cameras that are being placed in certain areas of Thomasville racially target a group of people so to have complete transparency we're calling for a Citizen Review Board to be recognized as partners to help the community and city bridge the gap to understanding and decide whether or not the flock system is right for our community.

Lucinda Brown is the first female certified officer employed by the Thomasville Police Department. She was hired in1977 and is a recipient of the " Police Officer of the Year" award. She now holds the position of President of the Thomas County NAACP Branch. Not only has she raised concerns about the Flock system but also high-speed chases by the City Police Department and Thomas County Sheriff's Department.

Lucinda Brown is the first female certified officer employed by the Thomasville Police Department. She was hired in1977 and is a recipient of the " Police Officer of the Year" award. She now holds the position of President of the Thomas County NAACP Branch. Not only has she raised concerns about the Flock system but also high-speed chases by the City Police Department and Thomas County Sheriff's Department.

Flock Targets Residents in District 1 of Thomasville GA

Council Member Wanda Warren took to social media to express her views on who should be worried about Flock Safety System.

Wanda Warren Facebook Comment on Flock SystemWanda Warren

Wanda Warren says there will be 15 cameras placed in violent areas.Wanda Warren

Dyson Demands the removal of Council Members Warren and Mobley

Jennifer Dyson has a list of demands and one of which includes the removal of Council Members Wanda Warren and Todd Mobley of District 1 to be removed for violation of Trust, discriminatory acts, and personal interest voting. All of which are illegal and in violation of the City Charter as well as Georgia Law.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE REFERENDUM PETITION

Due to recent events and actions of the city council, it is our finding that the council members representing District 1 do not in fact support the community efforts or view as it affects their district.  We are in agreement that immediate changes need to occur to obtain a fair objective for the community of district 1 as a whole. We have expressed our concerns and disagreement with such actions as increasing utilities, social events, recreational activities, African American small businesses policy and procedures, racially profiling and the flock camera system and these have repeatedly gone unheard. At this time we the people would like the state of Georgia to intervene in this situation and allow the citizens to do a referendum to obtain proper representation for their community and district. 

According to the City charter, Council District No. 1 is all that portion of the City which lies west of a line through the approximate center of the City, such line being more particularly described as follows: For a point of beginning commence at the intersection of the northerly margin of the right-of-way of Pinetree Boulevard and the center line of the right-of-way of Glenwood Drive, and run south along the center line of Glenwood Drive to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Edgewood Circle; run thence in a southerly direction along the center line of Edgewood Circle to its intersection with the center line of the right-ofway of Mitchell Street; run thence in a southeasterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Mitchell Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Clay Street; run thence in a southwesterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Clay Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Broad Street; run thence in a southeasterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Broad Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Monroe Street; run thence southwesterly along the center line of the right-of-way of Monroe Street to its intersection with the center line of Madison Street; run thence southeasterly along the center line of the right-of-way of Madison Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Remington Avenue; run thence in a northeasterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Remington Avenue to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Broad Street; run thence in a southeasterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Broad Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of the former Seaboard Coastline Railroad, now CSX Transportation Inc.; run thence in an easterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of such railroad to its intersection with the center line of Hansell Street; run thence in a southerly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Hansell Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of- way of Metcalf Avenue; run thence in an easterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Metcalf Avenue to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Loomis Street; run thence in a southwesterly direction along the center line of the right-ofway of Loomis Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of South Street; run thence in a southerly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of South Street to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Augusta Avenue; run thence in an easterly direction along the center line of the right-of-way of Augusta Avenue to its intersection with the center line of the right-of-way of Orange Street; run thence south along the center line of the right-of-way of Orange Street to its intersection with the southerly margin of the right-of-way of Pinetree Boulevard. All property within the limits of the City which lies west of the line described above and all property within the limits of the City due west of a line created by extending in a northerly direction the northern terminus of the line described above, and all property within the limits of the City which lies due west of a line created by extending in a southerly direction the southern terminus of the line described above shall be deemed to lie within Council District No. 1. All of which is a predominately black neighborhood.

What is Flock?

According to the Flock Safety website, it is a public safety operating system that helps communities and law enforcement in over 1,500 cities work together to eliminate crime, protect privacy, and mitigate bias. We build devices that capture objective evidence and use machine learning to detect and deliver unbiased investigative leads to law enforcement. Flock Safety communities have reported crime reductions of up to 70 percent. Flock captures the vehicle details you need to track leads and solve crimes. Flock Safety’s patented Vehicle Fingerprint™ technology lets you search by vehicle make, color, type, license plate, state of the license plate, missing plate, covered plate, paper plate, and unique vehicle details like roof racks, bumper stickers, and more.

• Identify any license plates within the photograph
• Convert each license plate number into machine-readable text
• Check each license plate number against manually entered plate numbers and “hotlists” of plates that have been uploaded to the system
• Provide an instant alert to a law enforcement agency when a match or hit appears
• Store the photograph, the license plate number, and the date, time, and location where the automobile was seen

ACLU Report on Flock

They are capturing drivers’ locations outside the church, the doctor's office, and the school, giving law enforcement and private companies that run the largest databases the ability to build detailed pictures of our lives. Location data can reveal extremely sensitive information about who we are and what we do. As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit explained in a recent GPS tracking case:

A person who knows all of another’s travels can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts.

And license plate readers can be used for tracking people’s movements for months or years on end, chilling the exercise of our cherished rights to free speech and association.

The ACLU published a report Titled "You are Being Tracked about How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements.

The American Civil Liberties Union is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States"

The ACLU also remains a champion of segments of the population who have traditionally been denied their rights, with much of our work today focused on equality for people of color, women, gay and transgender people, prisoners, immigrants, and people with disabilities.