Newcastle council directs staff to terminate Flock Safety contract amid new state ALPR law

Newcastle —April 7, 2026— —Newcastle City Council—

The Newcastle City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to direct the city manager to terminate the city's contract with Flock Safety, the vendor that provided automated license-plate reader (ALPR) services for the police department. City staff recommended ending the contract in light of new state legal requirements that would make the contracting agency responsible for registration, audits, retention of access logs and other oversight obligations.

City Manager Pingle told the council the recently enacted Washington driver privacy law (referred to in the meeting as SB602) imposes a new set of administrative and legal duties on any agency that directly owns or operates an ALPR contract, including registration with the state attorney general, annual internal audits, published governing policies and annual reporting. "As a contracting entity, the city would be required to register the system with the state attorney general, certify ongoing compliance, maintain detailed access logs, retain audit trail data, conduct annual internal audits, adopt and publish formal governing policies, and submit annual reports to the legislature and the public," Pingle said. He added that noncompliance could carry criminal and civil liability for the contracting agency.

Staff's recommendation was that those compliance obligations are better borne by an agency built for that oversight, such as the King County Sheriff's Office, rather than by the city. After discussion about whether the county would agree to assume contractual responsibility, Council Member Jacobs moved and Deputy Mayor Charbano seconded a motion directing the city manager to terminate Newcastle's contract with Flock Safety. The motion passed 7-0.

Public comment at the start of the meeting had urged greater transparency and auditing of ALPR usage. Stephen Vines, a resident who said he had analyzed Newcastle PD records, told the council the city had not produced regular usage audits and questioned the system's demonstrated law-enforcement benefits. Vines cited a King County public-records response that, as read into the record, reported "3,620,857 network searches from outside law enforcement agencies" for a period between May 2024 and June 2025 and referred to a smaller number of searches attributed to Newcastle PD in the records; the transcript record of the smaller Newcastle number was unclear.

Council discussion emphasized that the current motion would prevent Newcastle from remaining the contracting agency under the new state law. Several council members said the city could revisit ALPR use later if the King County Sheriff's Office or another appropriate agency offered to serve as the contracting agency and accept the statutory responsibilities. City staff said that, unless the county takes responsibility, the city could not comply with the new statute and should not allow the contract to auto-renew.

What happens next: staff will carry out the council's direction to terminate the Flock Safety contract. Council members and staff said they expect further conversations with the King County Sheriff's Office and county officials about whether and how the county might assume responsibility for an ALPR program. The council did not adopt any new local ALPR policy at the meeting.