At its final formal meeting of the year, the Salt Lake City Council voted to approve two grant-funded projects and to defer a separate COPS Technology & Equipment subaward tied to automated license-plate readers (ALPRs).

The council approved the Jordan River Water Trail restoration grant for $666,000 and the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeless Shelter Cities Mitigation grant (reported in the meeting as $3,249,704), and deferred consideration of a $224,000 COPS subaward that would have funded ALPR cameras. The motion to adopt the two grants and defer the ALPR subaward was made by Councilmember Lopez Chavez and seconded by Councilmember Pui; the council recorded five votes in favor and two opposed.

Why it mattered: Dozens of residents packed public comment to urge the council to reject or pause ALPR installation, citing privacy risks, cybersecurity vulnerabilities and concerns that private vendors or federal actors could access tracking data. Speakers raised the prospect that ALPR systems can be integrated across vendors (they cited Motorola Solutions hardware and possible integration with Flock software), that device firmware and cloud storage have known security flaws, and that independent evidence of crime-reduction benefits is limited.

"If a system can't keep its own data safe, it can't keep us safe and has no business tracking our every movement," said David Mack, a lifelong Salt Lake City resident with a technology background. Ambreen Khan, a District 2 resident, asked the council to publish a detailed report specifying who would have access to data and to state explicitly whether federal immigration authorities would be barred from use without a warrant.

Not all public commenters were opposed. Christina Raab, chair of the East Liberty Park Community Organization, praised recent increases in police staffing and said the added capacity helped respond to community incidents and large public events. "With the increase of officers making it possible for him to respond to community issues," Raab said, citing improved event security and juvenile safety efforts.

Council response and next steps: Councilmembers acknowledged the public trust deficit and pressed staff for policy clarifications. Councilmember Young and others said they wanted clearer guidance on what conditions could terminate use of ALPRs if the technology is later funded or installed; options discussed included in-house encryption, cloud restrictions, and mechanisms to remove systems quickly if vulnerabilities were found. Councilmember Pui urged the council to strengthen surveillance policies in consultation with civil-rights groups.

The council's final action left the two environmental and homelessness grants moving forward and paused the ALPR expenditure pending further policy work and additional information to address the security, privacy and vendor-selection questions raised during public comment. The administration had earlier told the council that, under federal rules governing private-activity bonds and the COPS grant terms, certain oversight and restrictions would apply; staff said federal agencies cannot compel data without a court order in a criminal matter, but public commenters and one council member noted scenarios where state or federal mandates could affect data access.

The council did not set a date for reconsidering the deferred ALPR subaward; members asked staff and the police department to return with stronger policy language and details about vendor selection, data governance and technical safeguards.