Police presenter says Flock Safety camera network aided 90 North Ogden investigations; city pays about $30,000 a year

North Ogden — The Citizen Budget Committee received a detailed briefing on the city’s contract with Flock Safety, the company supplying automated license‑plate and parking‑lot image searches, as staff sought to explain how the system is used and governed.

Presenter (identified in the transcript as "Presenter") told the committee the city currently has 10 cameras and that footage is encrypted and deleted after 30 days. “The data is encrypted, and it's deleted after 30 days, which is monitored by auditors,” the Presenter said, adding that Flock is CJIS‑compliant and subject to internal and third‑party audits.

The presentation described the system’s operational limits: images (still photos, not continuous video in the city’s default configuration) can be searched when an active case exists, access is limited to a handful of authorized staff and retention can be extended only for open investigations. “We cannot get into the system unless we have a case,” the Presenter said, describing a small set of lieutenants, a sergeant and a detective as authorized users.

Committee members pressed on privacy and interjurisdictional access. The Presenter said North Ogden’s data sits in Amazon Web Services storage and that local jurisdictions share intelligence through an area tactical analysis center when cases cross borders; he denied that federal agencies can independently “tap” the city’s Flock data. “They can't tap into Flock and grab information that belongs to us,” the Presenter said, describing any federal requests as coming through local law‑enforcement channels.

Presenter also gave usage figures and a cost rationale. He said officers accessed the Flock system 689 times across 90 North Ogden cases and estimated the system saved roughly 2,700 man‑hours, which he translated to about $115,000 in personnel time saved; the city’s contract is budgeted at about $30,000 per year under a five‑year renewal begun in 2024 and includes a $500 convenience fee to terminate without cause.

The committee asked for documentation of historic camera counts and contract details; members questioned whether the program began with fewer cameras and grew to the current deployment. Presenter recommended publishing contract and operational information on the city web page for transparency and reiterated existing internal audit procedures.

The briefing closed with committee members asking staff to provide the contract and the presentation slides to the group. No formal action or votes on the Flock contract were recorded in the transcript; staff said the contract can be terminated under the stated terms and indicated follow‑up paperwork would be provided to the committee.

The city’s next procedural step is to circulate the contract language and slides to the committee and, if requested, bring related policy questions back for a future meeting.