Candidates running for Lexington Mayor and the Fayette County Attorney office answered questions about law enforcement accountability, racial justice and bias in Lexington at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center on Tuesday night.
Three of the four candidates running for Lexington mayor participated. Questions were submitted by voters ahead of the event and read by a moderator.
Although attendees were not allowed to comment, the audience disagreed with incumbent Mayor Linda Gorton’s explanation of the purpose of the cameras called Flock Cameras.
“Flock cameras are not for surveillance. Flock cameras, ‘excuse me,’ Flock cameras are for still photographs of license plates, Gorton said. “They're used for evidence.”
Adrian Wallace, president of a Lexington nonprofit, said the program lacks transparency and is a threat to privacy.
“I don't believe that they're going to be used for what they say they're going to be used,” Wallace said. “I think that we should know where they are.”
David Kloiber, a current member of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council is opposed to the expansion of the cameras and said the cameras are likely to be placed in communities that are already overpoliced.
“So when we're talking about expanding this, I will say I'm strongly against it, I will work with my colleagues on council to look to defund this program so that we do not see this expansion going forward,” Kloiber said.
Angela Evans, a former Lexington Fayette Council member and assistant attorney general, is running against incumbent Fayette County Attorney Larry Roberts.
When asked if cash bail should be eliminated, Evans said “yes.”
“Cash bond does keep people who simply cannot afford their belongings in jail. And it's time that we fix that disparity,” she said.
Roberts said there’s already alternatives that address people who cannot afford cash bail.
“We've got home incarceration where they can be at home and go to work, or back or not, that we've got ankle monitors which we use quite frequently, that allow that person to be outside but not be incarcerated,” he said.
May 17 is the primary election for candidates across Kentucky.
