Presenter flags privacy concerns after citing Flock's large image holdings

During his presentation, Dr. Paul Melendez raised privacy concerns tied to automated license-plate reader systems and asked the committee to consider how third-party data would be stored and used. "Where is that data being housed? How secure is it and how is it being used?" Melendez asked, citing what he described as vendor-reported totals: "Flock says that they've got, I believe, somewhere around 80,000,000,000 images that have been captured."The committee discussed whether ALPR usage and similar surveillance tools should be treated as a separate policy question and asked for clarity on whether such data is sold or shared. Members flagged the point as important for framing community trust: "Privacy. You have a lot of citizens that are going about their normal lives... they're not breaking any laws," Melendez said, urging the committee to weigh public safety benefits against privacy trade-offs. The 80 billion-images figure was presented as a claim by the speaker and was not independently verified during the meeting; the article treats it as a noted claim requiring outside corroboration.