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Auburn residents demand review of Flock surveillance; council schedules town hall
Summary
Dozens of residents told the Auburn City Council they want the city to end or review its contract with Flock, citing audits, out‑of‑state access, and documented misuse; the council directed staff to hold a September town hall and bring a follow-up council item.
Public comments at Auburn’s Aug. 10 council meeting centered on Flock Technologies' license‑plate/AI camera system, with multiple residents urging the council to cancel the city's contract and demanding transparency about who accesses the data.
"For the 12 cameras within Auburn city limits, we found that 4,500,000 searches from over 4,000 out of state and federal agencies," Auburn resident Zoe Haskins told the council, saying the audits included access by the FBI and U.S. Border Patrol and that many searches had blank reason fields. Other speakers cited national examples of misuse and urged immediate action. Jared Lovell told the council Flock’s product now enables so‑called 'freeform' searches that can locate people by appearance rather than just plate numbers, and Adam Lee, an IT specialist, warned the system can associate device signals with plates to build profiles.
Council members said they could not debate public‑comment items that were not on the agenda but agreed to direct staff to organize a community forum. Staff said a town hall will be held in September where the police department, staff and the vendor can present data, walk through contract terms and answer resident questions; council indicated it will return the item to a future council agenda after that forum. The council also noted it had received nine public‑comment emails opposing Flock and that those communications are available in the clerk’s office.
