‘Doesn’t this feel almost satirical?’: Jake questions Renton covering its already inactive Flock cameras

The Renton City Council voted to cover the city’s Flock license plate reader cameras with garbage bags, even though the cameras have been inactive since May. The dark garbage bag material is secured around the camera with zip ties to ensure the cameras cannot be reactivated without public knowledge.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, went back and forth on whether the city is being cautious or absurd.

Jake calls it overkill on cameras that are already off

Jake said covering already-deactivated cameras with trash bags felt “almost satirical” and questioned whether the city should also bag its tolling cameras if the concern is data security.

“They’re not running. The city has decided that’s not quite enough. They need further protection of these cameras,” Jake said. “Doesn’t this feel a little bit like double-masking Fauci?”

He questioned who would hack into an inactive system and turn it back on, and joked that the city should consider garlic wreaths to ward off any “evil spirits” that might bring the cameras back to life.

“In case these cameras, which no longer have a contract and will not be turned back on, in case they somehow become sentient and they turn themselves back on, is it possible, because that would be kind of like a vampiric thing, what if they also put like a wreath of garlic around the trash bag to ward away any evil spirits that could possibly turn the cameras back on and help protect people in traffic accidents? Is that a thing that people should worry about?” Jake asked.

Spike says the trust has already been broken

Spike argued the trash bags are a reasonable response after documented cases of local law enforcement sharing Flock data with federal immigration agents in violation of state law.

“Evidence is in. Numerous cases where local Flock cameras are searching and giving information to federal ICE agents,” Spike said. “Renton feels like they can’t trust the system or the people in place that are running the system locally.”

Jake countered that Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the Driver Privacy Act specifically to prevent that kind of access, but Spike said the law alone hasn’t been enough.

“You can’t trust that there’s not going to be a local operator who decides to disregard local law,” Spike said. “They want to eliminate the possibility that somebody could act on their own and take the law and justice into their own hands.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3