The Santa Cruz City Council has pushed off plans to revisit its contract with Flock Safety for automated license plate readers until January, rather than its originally planned date of Dec. 9.
The delay is to give the city enough time to review the contract and propose any changes during the holiday season, Councilmember Susie O’Hara told Lookout on Wednesday.
The city announced at last week’s city council meeting that it would pause its participation in a statewide system that shares data from license plate cameras with other law enforcement agencies in order to review the program after Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante said Flock Safety had been violating a California law earlier this year. The company’s national search tool allowed out-of-state law enforcement agencies to access license plate data collected by agencies in California, including data from the city of Santa Cruz.
The council is aiming to discuss changes to the city’s contract with Flock at its first meeting of the new year on Jan. 13.