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Residents press council to end license-plate reader program; town attorney says contract negotiations under way
Summary
Public commenters urged the Town of Jackson to end its contract with Flock license-plate reader cameras, citing privacy and data-use concerns. Town Attorney Leah Colaso said she has sent redlined contract changes to Flock and expects to return proposed revisions in March.
Residents and local businesspeople urged the Jackson Town Council on Feb. 2 to end the town's use of automated license-plate reader cameras, arguing the technology intrudes on privacy and creates a dragnet of everyday movements.
"Block surveillance cameras photograph every car, read every license plate, and track every movement through our town," said Eric Dahl during public comment, adding that the thousands of pictures taken daily "reduce us to pins on a map." Garrett LeRoy, a local video producer, told council members he understood potential law-enforcement utility but said the town is not equipped to handle the data risks and that "the best way to prevent our data from being misused is to not generate it at all."
Town Attorney Leah Colaso updated the council on the town's contract talks with Flock. Colaso said her office has met with the company's representative and prepared a redlined draft with proposed changes to strengthen privacy and data protections. "I have since made contract with their office, had a meeting initially with our Flock contact, and we made a plan for me to send them a draft contract marked up with red lines," Colaso said, and she expects to bring negotiated changes back to the council in the first meeting in March.
The comments and the attorney's update framed the current decision point as contractual negotiation rather than an immediate operational change. Council members did not vote on the matter at the meeting; Colaso said next steps depend on Flock's responses and any further negotiations.
The council previously heard the matter as a scoping report; public speakers asked the council to prioritize privacy protections and to consider ending the contract if satisfactory contractual privacy safeguards cannot be reached.
