BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council is on the fence about the city’s license plate-reading cameras, which have helped solve crimes but are sold by a company that’s violated state law and the city’s own policies.
Mayor Vicki Veenker said she wants to pursue a financial penalty against Flock Safety for a breach.
“So they know we’re serious and that this is not OK,” Veenker said tonight (June 1).
Flock allowed nationwide searches of Palo Alto’s camera data without the city’s knowledge or permission, Chief James Reifschneider revealed in an April 21 statement. Tonight’s meeting was council’s first discussion since the news came to light.
Veenker said she was glad police have used Flock’s cameras to solve home break-ins. Three of her neighbors were burglarized within a few days, including a house where an 11-year-old boy was home alone playing video games with headphones on.
“The terror among my neighbors was profound,” she said.
Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims and Councilman Pat Burt called out Flock CEO Garrett Langley, who has said Flock’s critics are trying to “normalize lawlessness” and “let murderers go free.”
Burt said Langley’s comments are an alarm about whether the cameras are in the right hands.
“I’m just not sure about being able to trust this company going forward,” Burt said.
Lythcott-Haims said council only heard about Flock’s “problematic practices” after the company got caught.
“Usually when something like this happens, the first thing to go is the CEO,” Councilman Ed Lauing said. “And that might’ve been the thing to do here.”
Nobody from Flock was at tonight’s meeting.
Activist groups called for the city to end its contract with Flock because they’re worried the federal government will use the data to track them at protests.
“Flock can’t be trusted, and surveillance is a dangerous path to embrace,” resident Winter Dellenbach said.
Data engineer Adam Marshall said Flock knows where he lives, works, worships and gets health care.
“I’m not suspected of a crime,” he said. “Why does my trip to the supermarket earn me a spot in a government database controlled by a company that so recklessly disregards state law and indeed your own robust policies?”
California’s Senate Bill 34, passed in 2015, prohibits local police from sharing camera data with out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies.
Reifschneider said he would consider another vendor if one was available besides Flock, and the department has increased its audits of the database. He said the cameras have helped locate stolen cars that are often used in more serious crimes.
The police union said Flock’s cameras have helped solve 139 cases since January 2024, and there’s been a 72% decrease in retail thefts at the Stanford Shopping Center.
“As crimes become more sophisticated, police departments must adapt,” said Officer Joshua Waldorph, vice president of the police union. “Use of automated license plate-reader technology is so woven into current police practices that taking this tool away would be equivalent to taking away the ability to dust for fingerprints or swab for DNA.”
The cameras also helped police find someone in a mental health crisis, so Lauing said they may have saved lives.
Cities including Mountain View, Los Altos Hills and Santa Cruz have ditched Flock cameras out of concern that ICE would use the data. San Jose and the Stanford Shopping Center have been sued over their cameras.
In late 2023, Flock added a new “nationwide lookup” search feature without the department’s knowledge, Reifschneider said in an April 21 statement.
Out-of-state or federal agencies could perform a broad search of data from Flock’s entire nationwide network, including the 20 cameras deployed in Palo Alto, Reifschneider said.
Flock turned the feature off in October 2024, Reifschneider said.
Flock told Reifschneider that no Palo Alto data was actually obtained by any out-of-state agency or federal agency as a result of any nationwide search.
Flock has become more aware of individual state laws since then, Reifschneider said.
Still, council is having a police auditor look into Flock. The city’s contract with Flock ends in December 2029.
It is amazing to see people who are willing to protect and enable the criminals who prey on our community, just to let the world know how much they hate Trump.