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Residents press council to demand Flock Safety guarantees or suspend plate‑reader system
Summary
Multiple residents urged Ridgecrest council to demand written guarantees from Flock Safety about data sharing and security or to suspend the system; councilmembers said they would look into the concerns and report back.
Several residents used the public comment period to press the city to address privacy and security concerns about its Flock Safety license‑plate reader program.
Michael Citra said Ridgecrest already shares data broadly through the vendor's network and raised technical security concerns, including unauthenticated API endpoints. "We are losing control of our data the second it leaves our servers," he said, arguing that the contract and the vendor's network design allow broad national sharing. Citra urged the council to demand a written indemnification and security guarantee and to suspend the system if Flock will not provide one.
Jamie Jones amplified similar concerns, citing the department's share logs and a long chain of downstream sharing. Jones cited specific contract sections and recent incidents in other cities as reasons for caution: "When Ridgecrest shares data with an agency like El Cajon, we are effectively plugging our citizens' digital movements into a national daisy chain," Jones said, calling the system's design "the system's intended design," not a glitch.
Councilmembers said they would look into the requests. A councilmember responded, "I will I will commit that I will look into it, and I will see their response from it, and I will report back to you," and staff said they would review contract terms and logs.
No suspension or formal vendor action was taken at the meeting; council directed staff to investigate and report back at a future meeting.
