Mountain View ends its automated license plate reader contract with Flock Safety
By Katie Nielsen
A number of communities in the South Bay are reconsidering the use of automated license plate reader cameras.
The city of Mountain View turned off its Flock cameras after the police chief said out-of-state agencies were accessing data collected in the city. During the city council meeting Tuesday night, council members voted to terminate its contract with Flock Safety.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, the Santa Clara County board of supervisors also took up the issue and possibly changing their policies around the cameras. Privacy advocates rallied at the county administration building ahead of the meeting, and more than 30 people spoke during the public comment — all speaking out against the cameras.
Huy Tran is the executive director of SIREN, Services, Immigrants Rights and Education Network, and participated in the rally as well as spoke during public comment.
“Flock cameras are the equivalent of putting a GPS tracker on every single car in the county regardless of whether you’ve been suspected of a crime,” said Tran.
He said, as a long-time Santa Clara County resident, he thinks the money should be spent elsewhere.
“We should just invest in community and invest in ways for the community to be a part of public safety, rather than just cameras and assuming the cameras will solve our problems,” said Tran.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department not only patrols the unincorporated areas of the county, but also provides police service for the cities of Saratoga, Cupertino and Los Altos Hills. The Los Altos Hills city council already voted to ban the cameras, but there are already hundreds of cameras in cities across the county.
“The primary reason I find value in it is to prevent or apprehend individuals who have committed violent crime, serious crimes,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Bob Jonsen.
He says he supports the use of the cameras so long as there are strict guardrails to ensure the data collected isn’t improperly accessed.
“This is not about the vendor. This is about the policy, and I feel very strong with the policy we have in place,” says Sheriff Jonsen.
Many county supervisors. Including Betty Duong, have reservations about using the technology at all.
“Today, we have an opportunity to limit a bad actor, a bad vendor, a vendor that has provided constructive notice across the country that they don’t have a history of being trusted,” said Duong.
In a statement, Flock representatives said the company “does not have any contracts with ICE or CBP. There is no “back-door” access to Flock Safety’s systems. Each Flock customer fully owns and controls 100% its data. Only our customers have sole authority over if, when, and with whom information is shared.”
The Santa Clara board of supervisors voted 3 to 2 to approve a motion to work toward drafting a stronger privacy policy around surveillance tools.
