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Richmond votes to extend Flock cameras amid privacy concerns
The Richmond City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to extend the city's contract with Flock Safety, a license plate reader camera company, through the end of the year while officials explore other options.
RICHMOND, Calif - The Richmond City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to extend the city's contract with Flock Safety, a license plate reader camera company, through the end of the year while officials explore other options.
The decision came after a marathon meeting and as several other Bay Area cities have terminated their contracts with Flock over privacy concerns — specifically, fears that federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement could access the data collected by the cameras to locate immigrants and other vulnerable groups.
Police use the automatic license plate readers to investigate crimes such as vehicle theft. Flock Safety says it does not resell the data or collect it for unauthorized purposes, though some remain skeptical.
Dig deeper:
In the past three months, city councils in Santa Cruz and Mountain View, as well as Santa Clara County, have terminated their contracts with the company. Oakland and San Jose use Flock cameras, though San Jose voted last week to scale back some aspects of the surveillance system.
2 Bay Area mayors disagree over ending Flock surveillance contracts
As Bay Area cities cut ties with Flock, two South Bay mayors share their differing views on ditching the surveillance technology to fight crime amid immigration concerns.
Richmond officials disabled the city's license plate readers in December as a precaution. Supporters of the technology argued the cameras are effective tools for solving and deterring crime, and said their months-long deactivation hampered investigations.
What they're saying:
"Two weeks ago, the chief mentioned that there was a young woman, a teenager being trafficked," said Councilmember Cesar Zepeda. "While she was from a different county, she did get trafficked in Richmond. And she was here for a couple of hours, and within those hours we were not able to help her. So we failed."
Mayor Eduardo Martinez, however, told the council that he doesn't trust Flock, citing a case in Illinois where the Secretary of State discovered that ICE gained access to license plate data through Flock, in violation of state law.
"We need a company that’s based in California because they will be more restricted by California law because they will know that law and they will adhere to that law," he said at the meeting.
The vote also directed the city attorney to negotiate a contract amendment to prohibit the unauthorized sharing of data.
Richmond Councilmember Cesar Zepeda speaks at a pro-Flock rally. March 17, 2026