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The New Bedford Light will host “Flock: Public Safety vs. Privacy,” a Community Conversation, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Keith Middle School in New Bedford.
Panelists for the event include New Bedford Police Chief Jason Thody, Fall River Interim Police Chief J.T. Hoar, attorney Gideon Epstein with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and state Rep. Steven Owens.
The Light’s Community Conversations are civil forums designed to bring together different perspectives of a controversial or complex issue. Through a moderated discussion, we will explore key questions and considerations to help the community better understand the issue and its implications.
The Light will ask questions of the panelists, and then invite audience members to ask questions. To give as many people as possible the opportunity, questions must be kept short.
Here are the panelists and their background:
Gideon Epstein is a policy counsel in the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, where he focuses on surveillance, data privacy, and artificial intelligence issues. In this role, he engages in local and statewide advocacy to strengthen democratic oversight of surveillance technologies and uphold civil rights laws in the face of artificial-intelligence technologies that threaten to reinforce existing patterns of discrimination and bias.
J.T. Hoar is the interim chief of police for the Fall River Police Department. He is the fifth generation of his family to serve the city’s Police Department, a legacy that goes back to the 1800s. Since joining the department in 2012, he rose through the ranks of officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and deputy chief before being named interim chief. With a background in computer science, he is a strong believer that technology is an essential part of 21st-century policing. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Police Association and as a commissioner with the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, where he helps uphold professional standards.
Steve Owens is serving his third term as the state representative for the 29th Middlesex District, which includes most of Watertown and parts of Cambridge. He serves as vice chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, and sits on the Joint Committees on Ways and Means; Transportation; and Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity. Representative Owens has introduced a bill that would require statewide regulations on the use of automated license-plate readers such as Flock.
Jason Thody has been New Bedford police chief since July 2025. He has 30 years of law enforcement experience, having retired as chief of the Hartford, Connecticut, Police Department in 2024 after 28 years of service. In New Bedford, he has fostered enhanced training opportunities with a focus on supervision and leadership, bolstered specialized units including Community Policing, School Resource, Traffic, and Port officers as well as the Professional Standards Unit, and reorganized the detective division with a concentration on violent crime reduction. Under his leadership the Department has joined the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission and begun the accreditation process.
Parking is on the right side of the building. The event, which starts promptly at 6 p.m., is first come, first served.
