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Ellensburg police report year-one results for Flock license-plate camera network, stress in-state-only searches
Summary
Ellensburg Police said its one-year Flock ALPR deployment (13 cameras) produced about 1.7 million monthly reads and helped locate stolen vehicles and missing persons; the department emphasized it restricts searches to in-state queries and said it does not grant ICE access, while councilors probed limits for unplated vehicles and false positives.
Ellensburg's police department told the City Council on Nov. 17 that its first year operating a Flock automated license-plate reader (ALPR) network has aided investigations while raising questions about scope and safeguards.
“We started with the program with 13 cameras being utilized across the city,” Ellensburg Police Operations Captain Jim Weed said, describing a deployment strategy intended to capture inbound traffic. Weed told council the system records roughly 1.7 million vehicle passages per month and about 750,000 to 800,000 unique plate reads. Officers used the system for about 186 searches during October and recorded approximately 2,740 hot-list hits over the year, he said.
Weed described cases the city cites as successes: locating a vehicle and driver in a hit-and-run, tracking a stolen vehicle through interagency alerts and locating a missing or endangered person. He said one case involving probable cause from a neighboring jurisdiction led to an arrest within about 90 minutes after a Flock hot-list alert.
The presentation addressed privacy concerns raised in media and advocacy reports. “Ellensburg Police Department does not provide access to its network for ICE to use in immigration enforcement,” Weed said, adding the department currently restricts searches to in-state queries while staff and statewide groups evaluate guardrails for any nationwide search option. He also said the system does not use facial recognition and that images are generally rear-of-vehicle photos.
Council members asked technical and operational questions: how officers handle vehicles without plates, how the system deals with stolen or swapped plates, and how false positives are reviewed. Weed said the software supports searches by vehicle characteristics (damage, bumper stickers, missing rear bumper) if plates are absent, and officers independently verify alert images to reduce false positives.
Weed pointed council to a Flock transparency page and the city's LPR policy posted on the municipal website and said the department continues to monitor operational issues in coordination with other Washington agencies.
The council did not take formal action on the presentation; members thanked staff and asked follow-up questions about policy oversight and reporting frequency.
Ending: The council accepted the update and directed staff availability for further questions; no vote or policy change was made that night.
