Capitola automatically renews contract with Flock; anti-surveillance organizers see ‘long road ahead’

The City of Capitola in early April automatically renewed its two-year contract with the company that runs the automated license-plate readers in the city, according to Capitola Police Chief Sarah Ryan.  

Capitola is one of two cities in Santa Cruz County with an active contract with Atlanta-based Flock Safety. The company currently has 10 cameras around the city, according to its contract. 

FLOCK CAMERAS: Find more Lookout news and Community Voices opinion coverage here

Watsonville also has a contract with Flock, which it approved last September, along with increasing the number of cameras from 20 to 37. In January, the the Santa Cruz City Council voted to end that city’s contract with Flock Safety following data breaches and strong community pushback.

Ryan told Lookout via email that the city’s contract with Flock is set up to renew automatically, unless the city wanted to end its agreement with the company. If the city were to have gone that route, it would’ve needed to begin that process at least 30 days prior.

Flock Safety continues to face public criticism after the company violated state law by allowing out-of-state law enforcement agencies to use its search tool to access license plate data collected by agencies in California, including in Capitola and Santa Cruz. Local anti-surveillance group Get The Flock Out said it has compiled additional data involving similar violations by state agencies and out-of-state individuals. 

Following the data breaches, Ryan previously said she made changes to Capitola’s contract with Flock, and the company disabled its national search tool. The changes require other California law enforcement agencies to sign a waiver to affirm their compliance with state law before receiving access to Capitola’s data. 

Ryan told Lookout in January that the cameras have been a useful tool for her department, but did not have an exact number of criminal cases that have been solved with the help of Flock cameras. 

Jill Clifton, a member of Get The Flock Out, told Lookout “it wasn’t a shock” that Capitola was going to renew the contract. 

She said the group is expecting “a long road ahead of them” in terms of getting the city to exit the contract with Flock. Clifton said Get The Flock Out is interested in building a relationship with Ryan and members of Capitola’s city council, and wants to talk to them about the group’s concerns with the cameras. 

Ryan told Lookout that she is open to continue speaking with community members about their concerns.

“We’re all concerned for our community, and so it’s just about building relationships and having conversations to see if we can come to some kind of mutual understanding,” Clifton said. 

Clifton said that since Flock is a private company, there’s no way to find out what it’s doing with data and who’s accessing it.

Additionally, Get The Flock Out doesn’t believe surveillance equates to safety, she said. “Watching everyone can be a violation of privacy concerns,” Clifton said. “The law has not kept up with technology in that realm.” 

The group also hosted a workshop in Watsonville earlier this week for community members to learn more about Flock cameras and share their concerns about the technology, said member Lourdes Barraza. She and fellow members of the group have been speaking with city councilmembers in Watsonville, and are planning to speak with Watsonville Police Chief Brian Shab in the future. 

The group might also hold workshops in Capitola as part of its efforts and after receiving requests from the community, said Barraza. 

“The more we educate people, the more people will become aware” of the dangers of such data collection, she said. 

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