Council votes to place Flock camera pilot program on hold

Published 1:21 pm Monday, December 8, 2025

In a meeting that featured four Mercer Island residents voicing their concerns about Flock cameras, the Mercer Island City Council unanimously voted to pause the city’s pilot program regarding stationary automated license plate reading (ALPR) cameras.

After city council gave the program the go-ahead in May, City Manager Jessi Bon recently recommended to place it on hold due to the “feasibility of the project in addition to recent reports on Flock’s data security and public records implications,” according to a city document.

During a robust Mercer Island police technology report on Dec. 2, city management analyst Carson Hornsby noted that a University of Washington report detailed the above concerns and also touched upon some instances where U.S. Border Patrol accessed local law enforcement Flock data. Additionally, city staff is concerned about a Skagit County court ruling that says images taken by Flock cameras are subject to public records requests, Hornsby noted.

According to a previous Reporter story in 2023, the stationary cameras are utilized to help reduce crime, and they snap still images of rear license plates of vehicles that enter and exit cities. Through this process, officers are alerted of stolen vehicles that have been detected, and are also notified of missing, endangered or wanted persons.

Staff felt it wouldn’t be feasible to run the program for now because Washington State Department of Transportation doesn’t allow the installation of third-party stationary ALPR cameras in the right-of-way. Mercer Island’s original plan was to install cameras at Interstate 90 off-ramps.

Now that the program is in pause mode, the $15,000 set to fund the project will go toward replacing Mercer Island Police Department in-car camera systems. The city can also utilize $85,710 from the in-car camera replacement reserve in the Technology and Equipment Fund to procure an in-car DVR system and a digital evidence management system.

On the police vehicles ALPR front, two patrol cars previously utilized standalone mounted cameras to automatically compare visible license plates with law enforcement “hotlists” of stolen vehicles or cars associated with wanted or missing persons, according to a city document. Those cameras are currently being used in the parking enforcement vehicle that experienced failed cameras. The new proposed DVR system will also contain an ALPR component in the same camera, Hornsby said.

At the meeting, resident Mar Brettmann was one of those Islanders urging the council to place the Flock program on hold: “As a mother of two children and a homeowner, I want to see Mercer Island continue to be a safe and secure city and I support measures to uphold the safety of everyone who visits, lives and works on our Island,” she said.

Kian Bradley added: “Let’s not make the same mistake as these other cities. Giving a private company unfettered surveillance access is not a good idea.”

When it was his turn at the mic during the appearances portion of the meeting, Eric Dubofsky said that the council should “can the cams,” adding that ALPRs are a “warrantless dragnet surveillance system with no meaningful opt-out system on certain law enforcement value and demonstrated potential for misuse.”

Sarah Karim addressed council by noting: “Immigrant and low-income families and anyone being racially profiled by ICE, those who already carry the burden of systemic inequities, this is not just a privacy issue. It threatens their ability to live freely, to move without fear, come to work and to provide for loved ones.”