Woodside council accepts ALPR reports, orders tighter oversight and an audit search
Loading...
Summary
After a contentious public hearing, Woodside Town Council accepted quarterly and annual automated license‑plate reader (ALPR) reports, directed the sheriff to report directly to council, and asked staff to explore independent audit options amid calls from residents to pause the Flock Safety program.
The Woodside Town Council voted Feb. 10 to accept its quarterly and annual reports on automated license‑plate readers while ordering changes to oversight and an exploration of independent audit options.
Town Manager Jason Ledbetter summarized the town’s audit materials and the sheriff’s annual figures, saying the county report showed “roughly 5,027 hot list alerts,” including thousands of stolen‑plate hits and dozens of felony vehicle matches. Ledbetter said the town’s quarterly manager audit examined 10 randomly selected searches and concluded that the Woodside deployment was compliant with the town’s policy, which limits access and retention.
Assistant Sheriff Mark Myers and Administrative Sergeant Nick Baragno defended operational controls. Baragno said the Woodside searchable database is configured to the town’s retention schedule: “I personally know that because it affected 1 of your residents when I was not able to do a search at the 61 day mark,” and that Woodside results were not accessible beyond configured parameters.
Flock Safety’s public affairs manager Lily Ho told the council the company instituted statewide settings in March intended to prevent federal access and to remove nationwide lookup from California accounts. “We created that policy in March, and that was to help agencies comply with state laws,” Ho said, adding the company can provide configuration confirmation and drop‑down search tools to reduce vague reasoning fields.
Residents and advocacy groups pressed the council from the public comment period to pause or end the town’s contract with Flock, citing national reporting of unauthorized sharing, technical vulnerabilities and risks to immigrant and reproductive‑health privacy. Kimberly Wu of SIREN said the technology “puts our communities in danger,” and other speakers urged a technical, independent audit rather than reliance on vendor letters.
Council members split on remedies. Councilmember Wall argued for pausing expansions and pursuing a full independent review, citing regional breaches. Others emphasized trust in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and the local public‑safety benefits of the network. In the motions that followed the deliberation, the council voted to accept the reports, instructed the sheriff’s office to establish a direct reporting relationship to council for ALPR oversight, and directed staff to explore the feasibility and cost of a third‑party/technical audit and bring options back to council.
The council’s actions accept the staff audit under current policy while initiating steps to strengthen verification and governance. Staff committed to follow up with technical confirmations from Flock on sharing and deletion settings and to report back with options for an independent audit.
