Residents urge Grass Valley to pause or end Flock license‑plate camera use

Several Grass Valley residents used the public‑comment period to urge the council to pause or end the city’s agreement with Flock Safety, the company that provides automated license‑plate reader (ALPR) cameras.

Esther Alice, a middle‑school teacher, said the cameras undermine trust between police and vulnerable communities and asked the council to redirect funds toward prevention and community‑policing strategies: “These flock cams ... breed mistrust and fear,” she said. Anthony Kaiser told the council that Flock’s data practices amount to mass location surveillance and called the vendor a “data broker” that mines broad streams of location information.

Other commenters cited recent decisions in larger jurisdictions — including the Los Angeles Police Department’s pause and Mountain View’s removal of some cameras — and said Grass Valley should follow suit while the legal and technical risks are reviewed. Several written comments read into the record described statewide records showing outside and federal searches of local camera data and urged strong guardrails if any ALPR system is retained.

Councilmember reports noted staff has arranged a Zoom meeting with Flock’s public affairs director to discuss the community’s concerns and to seek clarifications about data retention, access controls and third‑party sharing. No council action was taken at the meeting; speakers requested an agenda item for formal review and possible pause or termination.

Next steps: councilmember(s) requested staff pursue a follow‑up briefing with Flock and prepare information for a council agenda item that would identify legal constraints, data‑access logs and any options for pausing operations while review occurs.