Olympians Want AI Powered Surveillance Out of Our City!

On the evening of November 10th, over 150 community members packed shoulder to shoulder into a cafe, overflowing onto the side walk, and many standing outside the doors to hear about Flock Safety company’s AI-powered Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). These cameras are tracking our community in Olympia and have been used by federal agencies like ICE to run thousands of searches in Washington without the authorization or knowledge of local law enforcement. The following week, dozens of community members took to city council to voice their concerns and express the urgency of ending Olympia Police Department’s (OPD) 2 year contract with Flock (that began in March of 2024 and costs $90,000) for 15 of these cameras. The message is resoundingly clear: Olympia says no to the horrors of AI-Powered surveillance!

The law enforcement agencies who use these products, such as OPD, falsely claim that this data is secure and that they have control over this information. The truth is this data frequently flows between government and private entities and is accessed through a variety of methods that are out of the department’s control. These are not just simple cameras, they are creating a “fingerprint” of our vehicles, collecting any identifiable data and storing it in a centralized database owned by Flock. This database is hacked, leaked, or accessed through backdoor channels regularly. As one community member voiced to city council: “This is not something that anyone wants. From a person with a career in software, Flock system is an operating system that is so outdated… it has more than 900 known vulnerabilities”.

Flock’s transparency portals do not give a full picture of who has access to their database. They are notoriously incomplete and misleading and allow law enforcement to underreport how far this data is being spread. OPD’s portal states that 88 agencies have access, but the actual number is unknown. To contextualize what this could mean take Boulder, Colorado as an example. Their portal lists a similar statistic of around 90 agencies with access. However, a public records request revealed that over 6,000 agencies were obtaining their data. The measures that Flock and their clients take towards transparency and security are a farse intended to appease and quell public outcry against their invasion of privacy. The ways that they are collecting and sharing data is deeply harmful to the public. Our safety is not their priority.

This isn’t something any of us can opt out of. As another concerned community member told city council, “I’m not comfortable being on cameras all the time, at work, on the streets, everywhere. I just don’t want it anymore!” The high quality cameras are located at the busiest intersections of our city, with the ability to record details not just about our vehicles but also our persons. Flock also contracts with Amazon’s Ring cameras, making the reach of their surveillance incredibly wide. All of that information and how it is used and shared is out of our control.

It is no surprise this power has been abused. ALPRs have been used to track people seeking reproductive care across state lines. Police departments have misused this data for both personal stalking as well as sharing the data to abusers for bribes. These are just a few of the countless instances of misuse reported so far. Even though the keep Washington Working Act (2019) bans local cops from helping immigration enforcement, it has been reported that Washington residents’ data from Flock ALPR cameras have been accessed by US Border Patrol thousands of times in 2025. UWCHR Director Angelina Godoy argues, “Flock’s unregulated surveillance technology leaves the door wide open for violations of our states restrictions on collaboration with federal immigration enforcement… The fact that local law enforcement agencies say that they did not know that their Flock systems had exposed Washington state residents to these risks only underscores the urgency of this issue”.

There are steps you can take to Get the Flock Out of Olympia!

Talk to your friends and neighbors about APLRs, voice your concerns to City Hall, and sign on to our open letter!

www.maglit.me/deflockoly