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Residents press council over Flock ALPRs; chief says audits monthly and data retained 30 days
Summary
Several residents raised privacy, access and audit concerns about Sterling Heights' Flock license-plate reader system; Police Chief Satterfield said the city moved to monthly audits, retains ALPR data for 30 days unless flagged for a case and said no federal agencies are in the city's agreement.
Multiple residents told the Sterling Heights City Council they oppose the city’s use of Flock automated license-plate readers (ALPRs), saying the system stores long-term vehicle-location logs and is accessible to outside agencies.
Philip Decker told the council he found the city’s Flock transparency page alarming, saying it lists 1,842 external agencies with access and showing 421 searches in the last 30 days. "That’s 5,000 a year, and we’re only looking at 10 of them to see if they’re following policy," Decker said, and he urged third-party audits and stricter limits on who can search the system.
Tabu, another resident, said the ALPRs felt like warrantless surveillance that could implicate the Fourth Amendment and asked about data-sharing standards and who may access the system. Engineer and Royal Oak resident Chris Gar described the product suite (cameras and first-responder drones), warned that the system creates a persistent log of vehicle movement and urged the council to require independent audits rather than vendor-selected audits.
Chief Satterfield responded on behalf of the department, said the transparency dashboard would be updated with a recent arrest aided by ALPRs and described policy changes: "We just implemented in the last few weeks, instead of an annual audit, we're doing it monthly," he said, and added that ALPR data "is saved for 30 days unless it's flagged in a crime". The chief also said, "we do not share any data with any federal agencies" under the city’s agreement.
Council members pressed for records showing who has searched the network and for what reasons; Councilmember Radke asked for the year's Flock search logs to be provided for council review and asked whether the city has ever denied an outside agency’s request. The chief invited council to a demonstration of the system and staff agreed to provide the logs for council review without objection. The transcript does not record council adopting a new public policy or ordinance; it records the chief's commitments and a council request for audit logs.
