Los Altos City Council voted 3-1 to continue its contract with the beleaguered Flock Safety, an automated license plate reader (ALPR) provider that has come under scrutiny as of late after data breaches have sparked mistrust.
Despite the decision, city council members were not enthusiastic or overwhelmingly positive about the contract’s extension.
Because Flock Safety was not in good standing with the city, the contract’s extension hinged on amendments council members insisted on before moving the extension forward. Specifically, council members voted to align the city’s two contracts with Flock Safety (the first, which OK’d the Flock program, and the second, which included installation of additional cameras) while adding a reasonable notice of termination for convenience – if Flock is unwilling to agree, the city will terminate the contract no later than 30 days before it expires.
“We want to retain the ability to have judgment about what they’re up to,” said Vice Mayor Larry Lang during the meeting. “…What’s important to me is that we can exercise continuing judgment about their behavior.”
Councilmember Pete Dailey voted no against the renewal because, while he himself pushed for the Flock Safety pilot program’s creation and implementation, he said their recent actions and potential misuses of the data from the city’s ALPRs swayed him against extending the contract. Councilmember Jonathan Weinberg, who made the motion to continue the contract with the changes, said he would have preferred council end the contract. But because he didn’t want to keep the status quo – the contract as it was – he voted for the contract’s extension with amendments.
“I truly believe that Flock has never intentionally done something knowing that it was contrary to a contract they had with Mountain View… or whatever city,” Weinberg said during the city council meeting.
The decision was overwhelmingly opposed by more than a dozen public commenters, many of whom were against Flock Safety as an institution, concerned about their data and nervous about its potential misuse.
“Guardrails are not effective. Despite appropriate guardrails, there is always a risk of data breach, data sharing with unauthorized agencies and release by Flock of the city’s data,” said Cara Silver, a municipal lawyer and the co-lead of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus’s immigration team. She added that it put undocumented immigrant workers who work in and pass through Los Altos at risk. “We hear over and over how immigrants fear driving because of the threat of Flock following them.”
For more on the story, read next week’s issue of the Town Crier.
— Christina Casillas
