Residents press Shelton council to cover or end Flock license-plate camera use, citing privacy and federal-access worries

At the public-comment period, multiple residents urged the Shelton City Council to reconsider the city's use of Flock automatic license-plate readers and related analytics.

Franklin told the council the cameras do not prevent crime and are used primarily for surveillance and data collection; he raised concerns about wrongful arrests, racial profiling and the potential for Flock to sell or provide broad access to data via subscriptions. Matthew Hilton later described the local deployment (which he said comprises 12 cameras) and stated the devices store captured plate and vehicle images for 21 days. Hilton cited a University of Washington study that he said showed several Washington police departments had shared data with federal immigration authorities via one-word searches and urged the council to "cover the cameras until the contract ends in August" and remove them thereafter.

Speakers emphasized two recurring concerns: (1) backdoor or third-party access to camera data by federal actors or other subscribers, and (2) the privacy implications of storing identifiable vehicle and license-plate data on a private-company platform. Speakers asked the council whether state guidance exists and requested that the city either prohibit sharing or suspend the system while potential access and oversight gaps are evaluated.

Council did not record an immediate policy decision or vote to suspend use during the meeting; residents asked for follow-up and staff noted they would provide more information at future council consideration.