Umatilla officials defend Flock license-plate reader amid residents' privacy concerns

City staff told residents at a July town-hall meeting that Umatilla’s automated license-plate reader subscription is a leased service paid from general-fund dollars and restricted by both internal policy and new state law.

“It's a subscription service. The cost is $21,000 a year for the service,” City Manager Dave Stockdale said, adding that the city does not own the camera equipment and that the vendor will swap hardware as part of the lease.

Why it matters: The system is designed to help police quickly identify suspect vehicles in violent cases, staff said. Detective Sergeant John Capers outlined several shootings last summer that investigators say would have benefited from automated plate reads; he also described a two-part accountability system — an internal request form and the vendor’s own audit logs — that he said will record every search.

Capers said he has created an internal form that officers must complete for each search, including the requesting officer’s identity, a case or incident number, whether the request is local, federal or task force-related, and a brief synopsis establishing the investigative basis. “This form is separate from the Flock interface,” he said, and the agency will file the form in its own records in addition to the vendor’s log.

City Attorney Joanna Lyons Antley told the council the legislature has recently tightened controls. “Senate Bill 1516 no longer allows Flock to release that information,” she said, summarizing the statute enacted March 31, 2026. Under the law, license-plate data is owned by the contracting agency, retention is limited to 30 days unless subject to an active case, and vendor access and sharing are restricted; the statute also requires audits and penalties for unauthorized vendor disclosures.

Still, several residents and some council members pressed staff on oversight and public input. One resident noted national reports that vendors once allowed federal access to some systems and asked what guarantees exist now. Lyons Antley replied that, while state law narrows vendor access and creates civil remedies, the question of future federal preemption would depend on any federal law and later interpretation.

Police officials said search privileges are currently limited to a small set of administrators; patrol officers may use a hot-list notification function but do not perform full searches. Capers said the agency plans to broaden admin access only after additional training.

What was not decided: Staff said the initial procurement was handled under existing budget and procurement delegations and therefore did not require an additional council vote at purchase time. Several council members said they expected more public hearings for a system described as “more controversial” than typical equipment purchases.

What comes next: Staff pledged to provide additional documentation and a memo with links to system audits and vendor compliance materials at the city-manager report on Aug. 4. Several residents asked the council to hold more town halls before future renewals; the subscription can be canceled, staff said, and the vendor would remove equipment if the city chooses not to renew.