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Grass Valley residents press council to end Flock camera contract as police promise 60-day review
Summary
Residents urged the council to terminate the city's contract with Flock Safety, citing alleged mass searches and data-sharing with federal agencies; Deputy Chief Steve Johnson told the council staff is reviewing contracts and will return with more information as part of a 60-day review.
Deputy Chief Steve Johnson told the Grass Valley City Council on Monday that the police department is completing a 60-day review of its use of automated license-plate reader technology and will bring additional information to the council in August.
"Staff has been working diligently to better understand and be able to address the related issues," Johnson said, noting staff had consulted technical experts, examined vendor contracts and examined how data are accessed, used and retained. He said the department committed to report back following a community meeting on June 10.
Multiple residents told the council the review should end the city's relationship with Flock Safety and other mass-surveillance vendors. "Grass Valley PD's Flock cameras have been searched over 7,500,000 times by outside agencies," Kelsey Heiss told the council, and she said audit logs show far higher counts than what the vendor's public dashboard reports. "That's not a rounding error. That is a lie dressed up in a dashboard," she said.
Other public commenters recounted incidents and research they said demonstrated risk. Theo Borys cited an August 2023 Texas case in which a family was mistakenly held at gunpoint after a license-plate misidentification, and urged the council to end the contract immediately. Several speakers also said California's attorney general in 2023 barred sharing certain ALPR-derived data with immigration enforcement and asserted that the city's records showed searches by immigration-related agencies in Grass Valley.
Deputy Chief Johnson did not provide a final decision Monday; instead he described the work staff has done and said more details will be returned to the council as part of the stipulated review period. "We will have additional information for you in the month of August," he said.
The council did not take formal action on the ALPR contract at the meeting; public commenters said they will continue to attend meetings until the council votes to end mass-surveillance systems or remove the cameras. The next steps are the staff report and council consideration expected after the 60-day review.
