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Council approves strengthened Flock ALPR agreement after months of negotiation; privacy advocates press for tighter safeguards
Summary
After negotiations to strengthen contractual protections, the council approved amendments to the city's professional services agreement with Flock Safety and a city AOPR camera policy. The changes include a prohibition on voluntarily sharing city-owned ALPR data with federal immigration agencies except under a valid court order, immediate notification on government data requests, monthly audits, and liquidated damages for unauthorized disclosures; privacy advocates urged withholding approval until more protections were added.
The West Hollywood City Council adopted negotiated amendments to the city's professional services agreement with Flock Safety and voted to adopt a city automated license-plate-reader (ALPR or AOPR) policy after months of staff review and public comment.
Director of Community Safety Danny Rivas said the updated agreement "substantially strengthen[s] the city's protections," highlighting new provisions that prohibit voluntarily sharing city-owned ALPR data with federal immigration agencies except where disclosure is legally required by a valid court order, require immediate notification to the city when Flock receives subpoenas or other governmental requests for data, expand audit reporting and add material-breach provisions including liquidated damages of $200,000 for each unauthorized disclosure.
Rivas also described implementation steps: manual written requests and certification requirements for other California law enforcement agencies seeking access, monthly audits with the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station and public reporting of system usage in semiannual community safety reports.
Trevor Chandler, a Flock Safety representative, told the council the company is working with jurisdictions to address concerns about past data-sharing incidents and said the vendor has modified practices to reduce out-of-state access. "We fully expect that those conversations are gonna be productive," Chandler said.
Public commenters urged greater caution. Audrey Henson, a data sovereignty journalist, asked the council to withhold approval until narrow contract language is tightened, citing concerns that court-order exceptions, perpetual licenses to use data for algorithm training and the scale of the vendor's national network remain vulnerabilities. Nick Bridal and other speakers said prior incidents in other jurisdictions show the company retained or shared access without adequate safeguards and urged cancellation or stronger local controls.
Captain Fanny Lapkin of the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station described operational benefits: staff credited the ALPR system with roughly 215 stolen-vehicle recoveries since program launch (about 40 added since March) and use in notable criminal investigations, and said Flock alerts still require confirmation against criminal databases before enforcement action.
Council members who supported the staff recommendation cited the strengthened contractual terms and the program's public-safety results; those opposed or concerned said court-order carve-outs, the residual national-network effects and the vendor's record warranted stricter terms or delay. The council approved the staff-recommended amendments and policy by a 3-2 vote.
Staff will publish the AOPR policy and program audits, continue community outreach on safeguards, and work to apply comparable protections to the city's live-video camera agreement.
