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Residents and advocates urge Federal Way to suspend Flock license-plate readers, citing privacy and immigration concerns
Summary
Several residents and immigrant-rights advocates urged the city to suspend its contract with Flock and other automated license-plate readers, saying the systems produce few investigative leads and expose vulnerable community members to immigration enforcement; the police chief said the city disabled a national-lookout feature and found no evidence of ICE searches in the local audit.
Public commenters at a Federal Way council committee meeting on Dec. 16 urged elected officials to suspend the city’s use of Flock automated license-plate readers, arguing the technology threatens privacy and endangers immigrant community members.
Colin Kaley, a former parks employee and organizer with SEIU 925, told the committee that studies—including one in Piedmont, California—show "less than 0.3%" of ALPR hits produce useful investigative leads and called dragnet surveillance "not a good way to stop crime." He asked how long the police retain Flock data, saying he understood it could be "up to 30 days." "I would strongly ask the council to suspend our contract with Flock and all of the automated license plate readers in the city," Kaley said.
Eugenia Cascante, a Federal Way property owner and member of the immigrant community, urged the council to "turn off all Flock cameras in the city of Federal Way," saying immigrant residents are especially vulnerable to surveillance and alleging federal agencies have used Flock data in immigration enforcement. Another commenter, John Staub, described worry about private companies collecting movement data while shopping or riding transit and called for stronger accountability and data sovereignty.
In response, the city’s Police Chief described the city’s setup and said the department operates one Flock camera at 21st and 320th and retains system data for 30 days. The chief said the city performed an audit, disabled the "national lookout" feature so out-of-state federal access is blocked, and, "to our knowledge," did not find any searches of the Federal Way system by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Advocates at the meeting cited a University of Washington Center for Human Rights study that they said showed broad searches of Flock data across the state and warned of "side door" or unpermitted access when agencies share results. City officials declined to confirm any federal searches of the local system but said county- and statewide practices warranted careful safeguards.
The public comments did not result in a vote or formal direction at this meeting. Committee members acknowledged the concerns and said they want to balance community trust and legal compliance with public safety tools; several members asked staff for additional information and noted the council would revisit related items at upcoming meetings.
