The use of Flock Safety Cameras in Renton has been center of debate for months, with one group pushing the city to end its contract with the company.
The use of Flock Safety Cameras in Renton has been center of debate for months, with one group pushing the city to end its contract with the company.
Renton's use of 24 Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), commonly known as Flock cameras, was put on pause back in May. At the start of August, Renton City Council approved a motion to physically cover the cameras while they remain inactive. And now, a vote to end the city's contract with flock is imminent as city leaders take public input to decide next steps.
ALPR cameras are AI-powered and capture license plate information and other vehicle characteristics, like damage. That information can be stored, searched and shared through networks that extend beyond the jurisdiction where a camera is located.
A group called DeFlock Renton raised concerns of the cameras being used by federal agencies for their work, or for personal stalking, for example.
"They can just pick a person and can know like where they live, where they work, where they go to the gym, all this stuff," Branden Conley with DeFlock Renton said. "And there's essentially no accountability."
Recently, Flock Safety tightened security measures, reducing its default retention period for license plate data from 30 days to seven days. The changes will also require law enforcement customers to use tools intended to identify suspicious searches and prevent unauthorized access.
And law enforcement officers across the state do see some benefits of using the ALPRs. Officers in Kent said they were able to track down a child rape suspect with the use of those cameras just this past weekend. But Conley argues that officers could do their jobs effectively before this new technology, and should be able to continue doing so.
"We don't have spikes in the crime statistics that would imply there's a significant problem that requires a significant increase in the tooling," Conley said. "Maybe it makes their jobs easier but the level of harm that is possible on the other side is just completely disproportionate."
No official date for a vote to officially end the city's contract with Flock Safety has been set yet.
