“This is to show people that rain or shine there are people who have a common interest in taking these down and to remind campus that this is our campus,” organizer Phoebe Haverstick told WKYT.
Students gathered on Friday afternoon at Alumni Commons to protest the university’s use of Flock automated license plate readers, WKYT reported. A student organization named DeFlock UKY welcomed participants to the on-campus demonstration, stating that members feel disappointed in the deployment of the cameras.
Haverstick outlined the group’s primary goal during the Friday afternoon gathering. The organization wants to remove Flock cameras from campus completely before moving on to address the next issue on their agenda.
Participants shared diverse reasons for attending the demonstration on campus. Angelica Bell and Samra Mekonnea said that automated license plate readers on campus do not make them feel safer. They joined the protest as part of a class project with the aim of raising awareness about the surveillance technology.
One participant explained the motivation behind joining the demonstration. “I wanted to come out here and use my voice because of the fact that me doing it shows people that it’s okay and you can get out here when it seems hard to use your voice to share what you believe,” a participant told WKYT.
Another student expressed concerns regarding demographic impact on the campus. “As a minority on a PWI campus, hearing that these machines that are already being used to surveil minorities are now on my campus is, again, disgusting,” a participant told WKYT.
Students marched across campus after stating they would not stand still and watch cameras take over their grounds. The University of Kentucky Police Department website indicates that the department is using 18 automated license plate readers on campus.
The police department website notes that the readers are not used to identify people by their faces or to provide live surveillance to community members. In a statement provided to WKYT, the University of Kentucky said that the goal is to safeguard privacy while also protecting campus, adding that all details of its use of automated license plate readers are published on its website.
