HUNTINGTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A Huntington man has filed a lawsuit against the City of Huntington and Mayor Patrick Farrell, alleging the city failed to follow required procedures before approving a $2.1 million contract with Flock Safety for surveillance technology.
The petition was filed July 16 in Cabell County Circuit Court by Greg Jamison, just days after Huntington City Council voted 6-4 to approve the contract during an early Tuesday morning meeting following hours of public debate.
More than 50 people spoke in opposition to the technology during the meeting, while protesters gathered outside City Hall.
If implemented, the contract would install a network of surveillance technology across Huntington, including license plate recognition cameras with vehicle fingerprint technology, live video cameras, gunshot detection audio devices and automatically dispatched drones.
According to the petition, the city failed to follow several required procedural steps when awarding the contract.
Jamison is seeking a writ of mandamus ordering the mayor and city to comply with what the petition describes as “clear, non-discretionary obligations” under city and state law and the Flock contracts.
He is also asking the court to declare that, without additional action by the city, Flock has not been lawfully granted the right to conduct private business on city-owned property. The petition also seeks attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The lawsuit alleges that members of the Huntington Police Department and the mayor’s office met with Flock representatives over several months and that emails show meetings with City Council members were structured to avoid a quorum, preventing public transparency.
City documents cited in the petition indicate plans to install approximately 44 license plate readers, 17 live video cameras, audio recording devices and two drones, with some equipment to be mounted on utility poles and other city-owned property.
The petition argues that Flock’s installation and operation of surveillance equipment on public property constitutes the operation of a private, for-profit business because the company intends to use data collected in Huntington to train its proprietary systems and market services to other customers.
According to the petition, while the city retains ownership of its customer data, the contract grants Flock a perpetual, worldwide license to use and disclose that data to provide services and improve its products. The petition also states that Flock controls how data is accessed through its web interface and is not required to provide it in other formats, meaning the city must continue paying for services to access data collected within the city.
Jamison contends the city’s authorization of public property for Flock’s use is unlawful because no ordinance authorizes the arrangement and the procedures required for granting a franchise, lease or other property interest were not followed.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Sparks and Robb Livingood with ACLU of West Virginia, Tyler C. Haslam of Haslam Law Office, and Hoyt Glazer and Abraham J. Saad of Glazer Saad Anderson. The case has been assigned to Cabell County Circuit Judge David Amsbary.
