Residents urge Mill Creek to end Flock camera contract, citing outside access to footage

Several Mill Creek residents used the audience‑comment period at the March 3 council meeting to urge the city to terminate its contract with Flock Safety and to strengthen local safeguards against federal access to camera data.

“Tech is not divorced from the people using it or the agenda behind it,” said Vanessa Golding, a resident of Mill Creek, urging the council to end the Flock contract and citing reports of federal searches into local Flock networks. She referenced a University of Washington report and independent media that, she said, documented federal agencies accessing camera data in Washington jurisdictions. “The evidence is clear. ICE has a contract with Flock. If they want the data, they will take it,” Golding said.

Amy Casebolt, another resident, echoed that the city’s decision to disable the nationwide lookup tool and to request law‑enforcement commitments are “not enough.” She cited audits that, she said, found thousands of Border Patrol searches of Flock data and listed Washington agencies whose networks were subject to audit. Both speakers pointed to other regional jurisdictions that have deactivated or canceled Flock contracts.

Councilmembers did not take formal action on the subject during the meeting. The speakers asked the city to take a leadership stance and to consider canceling the contract to maintain community trust.

What was said and what followed: speakers asked staff and council to pursue contract review and to report back; council acknowledged the comments but did not schedule follow‑up as a formal agenda item that night. The record of this meeting contains the public comments and supporting citations the speakers referenced; the council may choose to place the item on a future agenda for staff analysis and potential policy action.