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Resident Mark Stamos urges council to end Flock Safety license‑plate camera contract
Summary
At Rangely's town council meeting, resident Mark Stamos urged the council to review and end the town's contract with Flock Safety, calling the system a 'searchable' vehicle‑tracking database. Council members said they wanted evidence and encouraged public turnout before taking formal action.
Resident Mark Stamos told the council he wants the town to end its contract with Flock Safety and to hold public hearings before continuing use of the company's license‑plate cameras. "These flock license plate readers are more than license plate readers," Stamos said, arguing the system creates a stored "vehicle fingerprint" and that aggregated data can be used to track where people go and who they associate with.
Council members pushed back on some of Stamos's claims while acknowledging his concerns. One member argued that cloud storage used by the vendor is "more secure than what our servers are," saying the town's own systems may be less safe from hacking. Another councilor said they were not yet convinced there was evidence of misuse and asked for documentary reports cited by Stamos.
Councilors and other residents discussed tradeoffs between community safety and privacy. Supporters noted the vendor's cameras have helped locate stolen plates and missing people in other jurisdictions; critics warned the system could be integrated with other databases and become a mass surveillance tool. The council did not vote on contract termination. Members encouraged residents to attend meetings if they want the council to reconsider the system.
