Watsonville council approves two-year lease to expand police ALPR cameras amid fierce public opposition

Interim Police Chief David Rodriguez told the Watsonville City Council on Sept. 9 that the police department recommends approving a two-year order form to lease 37 automated license-plate readers (ALPR) from Flock Group Incorporated for an amount not to exceed $251,000 from the general fund. Rodriguez said the system provides "a true force multiplier" for investigations and public-safety responses, including stolen-vehicle alerts and cross-jurisdictional hot lists.

The presentation outlined policy controls and safeguards the department said would govern local use: "All data is owned by Watsonville PD and will never be sold to private third parties," Rodriguez said, and the system is configured to automatically delete untagged data after 30 days. He described internal auditing, required user IDs and search reasons, and a recently added feature that blocks impermissible keyword searches.

The police department cited recent operational results:…