At its May 15 meeting, the Mountlake Terrace City Council postponed a vote on whether to authorize the city manager to sign a master service agreement with Flock Safety, the proposed system of fixed automated license‑plate readers (ALPRs) that captures rear‑of‑vehicle images and alerts police to wanted vehicles.

The council took the step after a public comment that urged caution, a vendor presentation, questions from council members and police officials, and an extended discussion about data access and contract language. The city will solicit additional public input and bring the item back to the June 5 council meeting with a plan for written and in‑person comment, officials said.

Sam Doyle, a Mountlake Terrace resident who spoke during public comment, urged the council not to vote on the purchase and said the system would “opt into a system of mass surveillance” and risk sharing data beyond the city. Doyle cited Flock’s government‑agency customer agreement and argued the company’s contractual language gives it broad rights to access and disclose footage, and raised concerns about possible data sharing with federal immigration authorities.

Kristen McLeod, public affairs manager for Flock Safety, told the council the cameras are motion‑activated, capture still images of the rear of vehicles, do not perform facial recognition and upload images to an encrypted cloud. McLeod said the system has a default 30‑day retention period for images and that law enforcement must enter a “search reason” to access footage; she also described integrations with the National Crime Information Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Commander Scott King of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department and Police Chief Pete Khan outlined operational safeguards the department plans to adopt, including a transparency portal on the police page of the city website, supervisor and command review, and audit trails tied to user IDs. Commander King said the department would tailor external access and could revoke search privileges if the city chose to do so.

Council members expressed a range of views. Council Member Sonmore argued the system is “another tool in the toolkit” to help prevent and solve crime, citing silver and AMBER alert use cases. Council Member Murray said she had grown more concerned after researching the product and highlighted the risk of outside agencies accessing Mountlake Terrace data. Council Member Ryan suggested tabling the vote until all council members could be present. Council Member Woodard proposed placing the item on the June 5 consent agenda to allow residents time to submit written comments and to pull it for discussion if needed.

After discussion the council voted unanimously to postpone the decision to June 5 and instructed staff to design a public‑engagement process that will include written comment and an opportunity for oral testimony at the June 5 meeting. The council also asked staff to provide the contract and prior presentation materials and requested that the police department describe the proposed oversight policy in detail when the item returns.

The delay means the city will not sign the master service agreement at this meeting. Council members and staff said the pause is intended to give residents time to review contract language — including a clause in Flock’s master service agreement that Doyle and others cited — and to provide feedback before the council votes.

The council’s request to solicit public input and to bring the item back for a recorded vote was unanimous.