Residents press council to decommission 13 ALPR 'Flock' cameras over privacy and security concerns

During public comment on Dec. 11, two Des Moines residents asked the council to schedule a formal vote to decommission 13 Flock automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras operating in the city.

Chris Dela Rosa said he had raised the issue at a previous meeting and told the council that the continued use of ‘‘these cameras pose an unacceptable risk to our citizens due to security settings that include the use of multi factor authentication, MFA... vulnerabilities of human misuse, and physical hacking.’’ He asked for "clarification on the timeline" for placing a motion "to decommission, remove and permanently disable the 13 Flock cameras" on a future council agenda and referenced actions by Olympia and Redmond to disable similar cameras.

Judy Grandy followed, saying the ALPR system compiles large amounts of location data, cited an annual cost figure of $37,500 for 13 cameras and urged the council to call for a vote either that night or at the first meeting in January to deactivate the system. Grandy also referenced a Skagit County court case about access to ALPR data via Washington public‑records requests and told council members she had emailed staff and the police chief earlier that day.

The mayor and council took the comments into the record and reminded members that two upcoming public hearings (budget amendments and the Wesley master plan) would have separate public-comment opportunities; the administration did not provide an immediate response to the requests during the public‑comment segment.

What happens next: The public comments were recorded in the meeting minutes. Council did not schedule an immediate motion to decommission the cameras during the Dec. 11 meeting; residents requested clarity on when the item will appear on a future agenda.