Ferndale residents urge removal of Flock license‑plate cameras, request racial‑impact review

Several Ferndale residents used the council’s public comment period to urge officials to end or scale back the city’s pilot program using Flock license‑plate reader cameras and to perform a racial impact assessment before any permanent contract is approved.

Kathleen, a member of the Ferndale Inclusion Network who gave her address as 715 West Breckenridge, named the cameras explicitly and said the group wants the city to “remove at least half, if not all, of the cameras and conduct a racial impact assessment before considering any permanent contract of Flock.” She warned the cameras could be used to target immigrants and transgender and gender‑nonbinary community members if control of footage were transferred to federal authorities during a national emergency.

Mara Libsey, a nearby resident, told council she had asked members two weeks earlier not to renew the Flock license‑plate reading system and said the city has not followed through on its 2020 anti‑racism commitment by performing the pledged racial impact assessments. Libsey also said the police advisory and review board’s role in reviewing the system was unclear and asked the council to release a report describing the board’s involvement.

Sherry Wells, another resident, raised accuracy concerns, saying she had read that such camera systems misidentify darker skin tones and risk false accusations. “There’s been a couple times people have asked me if I have a twin sister,” Wells said, arguing the cameras could wrongly implicate innocent people and waste tax dollars.

A police department representative responding during the meeting said the deployed cameras are intended as license‑plate readers focused on vehicle rear areas and not designed for facial recognition, and that the system searches for license plates tied to reported crimes. The representative also said that while a person could be in a vehicle connected to a search, the cameras are aimed at plates rather than faces.

Speakers pushed the council to consider liability and contract terms: one resident asked the city attorney to provide an opinion on the consequences and potential liabilities of early termination of the Flock contract. Council members reminded the public that the Citizens Police Advisory and Review Board meets monthly on the fourth Thursday and that members of the public may attend.

The comments closed without council action; the public remarks were part of the meeting’s open comment period and not tied to a formal vote that night.