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East Palo Alto residents chastised the City Council on Tuesday evening for making last-minute changes to the agenda and indefinitely pausing a conversation to limit police use of Flock Automatic License Plate Readers despite ongoing public concerns.
Mayor Webster Lincoln, who is a part of the agenda-setting committee, said the discussion was “premature” four months after the council decided to create a three-year contract with the surveillance company.
The trio of newer council members Martha Barragan, Mark Dinan and Lincoln approved the removal of the item on Tuesday evening, setting aside concerns from residents about security of license plate data.
Dinan argued that a new discussion wouldn’t change his mind, calling the item a “waste of time,” he said.
City staff expressed confusion and concern over the decision, after the city’s consultants had appeared at the meeting to speak about the item. Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica, who is also on the agenda-setting committee, highlighted his right to add items to the agenda, even if the mayor is not in support of them.
The quick decision enraged constituents, who packed the room to express their concerns about the technology that has experienced various data breaches in the country and on the Peninsula. It was a decision multiple people called “undemocratic.”
“It’s really insulting for the intelligence of our community to try to keep things secret, as though we don’t have the ability to discuss. … This is a very serious issue, and the council members who voted for it are insulting the immigrant community,” Abrica said.
The trio of council members voted to approve the three-year contract with Flock Safety in December 2025, despite fears over data breaches under a federal administration that has found new avenues to locate and arrest immigrants. They assured the community that the technology could be canceled at any time if used improperly.
But Flock representatives recanted. In recent contract negotiations with the city, the company asked city officials to pay the three year contract in full without an option to terminate. The technology costs approximately $90,000 annually.
Given the emerging concerns, staff recommended limiting the agreement to a shorter duration.
“Because these terms do not adequately protect the City’s interests, staff is proposing to execute a new one-year agreement under the original 2024 pilot study terms at a cost of $92,000, expiring in December 2026,” city documents read. “Under these terms, the City may terminate for convenience.”
Lincoln claimed this discussion was “duplicative” and indefinitely tabled it.
Flock cameras, which claim to only document rear license plates on cars 24/7, store recordings for 30 days in East Palo Alto. They originally grew in popularity for their low-cost surveillance abilities, especially among the East Palo Police Department, which has reportedly struggled with low staffing.
East Palo Alto police say the technology has helped document various suspects in car collisions and sexual assault cases. In January, the cameras were used to arrest multiple suspects in a months-long series of armed vehicle robberies, according to police officer Jason Peardon, who helps lead the city’s Flock use.
Police Chief Jeff Liu wanted to reassure the community that the department is working intently to deter data breaches, he said. In February, police staff met with members of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus, a progressive grassroots group that has protested Trump’s immigration policies, to discuss use of Flock Safety. At that meeting, East Palo Alto revoked the City of El Cajon’s access to local surveillance data and incorporated language to deny permission for use of City data for artificial intelligence training, according to meeting documents.
“I’m not speaking to Flock, but I’m speaking to us,” Liu said. “I trust Jason, I trust us, and I trust our ability to manage the system. The ALPR program has been effective, well managed and tightly controlled by our department.”
Recent investigations, however, have found that numerous nearby jurisdictions, including Atherton, Menlo Park and Mountain View, have shared data with other law enforcement agencies in violation of local policies. These breaches often occur without the knowledge of police agencies, according to various media reports.
Mountain View opted to disable its cameras after an investigation by the Mountain View Voice revealed that more than 250 California law enforcement agencies had searched the city’s license plate camera data without its authorization.
Lily Ho, a Flock representative who presented at an East Palo Alto council meeting in 2025 in an attempt to assuage concerns, claimed that the technology had never been indirectly shared with unauthorized agencies.
Community members at the time were not convinced that the technology is safe. Many made it clear on Tuesday that their concerns have not diminished since then.
“There have been constant breaches of the data that Flock collects, exposing the lives and habits of our people and putting that into the hands of those who want to see our most vulnerable community members detained and sent away,” local resident Filiberto Zaragoza said during the public comment period. “How can you trust such a faulty system that has lied about its success?”
Zaragoza, who criticised the council for its minimal discussion on the removed item, said community members would return to express their concerns.
“We deserve to have another conversation around Flock, and you took that from us today,” he said.
“How can you trust such a faulty system that has lied about its success?”
You can’t.