Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Surveillance And Privacy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents tell Shelton council to pause Flock license-plate reader contract over privacy and backdoor-access concerns
Summary
Multiple public commenters urged the council to cover or cancel the city's contract with Flock automatic license-plate readers, citing alleged 'backdoor' access by federal agencies, data-sharing practices and lack of demonstrated crime-prevention benefits.
At the June 2 Shelton City Council meeting several residents urged elected officials to reconsider the city's contract with Flock, a vendor providing automated license-plate reader (ALPR) cameras.
A resident identified as Franklin argued the cameras do not demonstrably prevent serious crimes and described them as tools of surveillance that catalog motorists’ activity and can lead to wrongful arrests or racial profiling. "These cameras do nothing to help...they just track where you're going and what you're doing," Franklin said.
Matthew Hilton provided more detailed claims: he said the city currently operates 12 Flock cameras, that data are retained for 21 days, and raised concerns about "backdoor access" that could allow federal agencies (he named ICE/immigration as an example) or other subscribers to query camera data. "Flock said they had fixed this backdoor access...but that's still not very clear through audits," Hilton told the council and asked the city to "cover the cameras until the contract ends in August" so they can be removed later.
Hilton also described the vendor as a private company selling or licensing access to subscribers and cited outside reporting and advocacy groups when arguing for caution. He asked council to consider whether state guidance or additional auditing is available for law-enforcement use of the cameras. Council members acknowledged the concerns and asked staff to follow up with more information; no formal action to modify the contract was taken at the meeting.
The transcript reflects public concern about ALPRs' privacy implications and requests that the council review contract terms, audit access controls, and consider suspending active cameras ahead of the contract's August end date.
