BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
East Palo Alto will continue using license plate cameras despite residents’ concerns about data being released to ICE, City Council has decided.
Council members Martha Barragan, Mark Dinan and Webster Lincoln voted to extend a three-year contract with its Flock Automated License Plate cameras. Councilmen Ruben Abrica and Carlos Romero voted against the contract because it isn’t guaranteed that federal agencies would be blocked from accessing information gathered locally.
Every minute, Flock cameras take hundreds of pictures of license plates. The location of those license plates are put into a database and a computer can use the data to determine where a person had been driving.
Around 20 residents attended the meeting on Dec. 2 to speak out against the contract, which has added to fear about ICE in the community. Resident Enrique Rosas said President Trump has already criminalized the undocumented community, and the Flock cameras place East Palo Alto residents in danger.
“There have already been ar- rests and apprehensions where Flock and other police departments in other states have given that data over. (President Donald) Trump says jump, they say how high,” Rosas said.
East Palo Alto Police Chief Jeff Liu suggested a five-year contract for $450,000, but Barragan said a shorter contract would be best given the community’s concerns. The cameras are estimated to cost the city $90,000 annually, according to Liu’s report.
Resident Donna Moreno said the Flock cameras only target people of color and immigrants.
“Why would we put our trust in a system that has been proven that they don’t care about keeping people safe, but would rather make money by criminalizing people of color and immigrants,” Moreno said.
Liu presented examples to the council of success stories showing how the cameras have helped in cases.
In May, there was a hit-and-run collision in which a car fled on Bay Road. After receiving a call about the incident, officers found the car by using Flock, Liu said.
The federal government has not accessed the city’s data and it has only been shared with in-state agencies, Liu said.
Abrica said there was no security that Flock was blocking federal agencies from getting data, even if that meant through unapproved means. Flock representative Lily Ho said the company has never been hacked or shared data with any agency that isn’t approved.
“I’m much more worried about federal intrusion and we just can’t guarantee that there would not be any, unfortunately,” Romero said. “This is not at all to offend our men in blue and chief.”