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Residents press council to review "Flock" ALPR contracts and data sharing; staff seeks cloud storage purchase
Summary
Multiple speakers urged the council to ban or audit ALPR/"Flock" license-plate readers amid ICE cooperation concerns. Staff sought $38,910 for extra cloud retention for city hall cameras; council approved the procurement as part of the consent agenda.
Public commenters at the Saginaw meeting raised strong privacy and civil-rights concerns about automated license-plate reader (ALPR) cameras commonly called "Flock" cameras and urged the city to review contracts and third-party data sharing.
Cameron Matthews described how ALPR systems capture license plates, decals and other vehicle details and urged a ban, saying, "I urge everyone here to go to a website. It's called don'tgetflocked.com." Angel Gomez, Latino caucus chair, told council nine men were recently detained by ICE in nearby township areas and asked the city to "renegotiate, read the contract from FLOC" and to prohibit use of city-owned parking lots for ICE operations unless a judicial warrant exists. Matthews and Gomez both asked the council to direct the city attorney to audit third-party data-sharing agreements.
At the same meeting the council approved a consent-agenda purchase (item 4) for additional cloud video storage: Secure Comp Group LLC for $38,910 to increase retention of city hall security camera footage. Staff explained the city hall upgrade covers 37 cameras and that the new combined system reduced default retention to 30 days; departments previously could retain footage longer internally, and the additional storage addresses requests to review footage beyond 30 days.
Why it matters: Public concerns link surveillance systems and third-party data sharing to immigration enforcement and deportation risk. The $38,910 procurement is a separate, approved technical decision that lengthens retention for city-hall cameras and was discussed in the context of privacy questions.
