Quick Take
The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to revisit its contract with Atlanta-based tech company Flock Safety. Councilmember Ari Parker suggested bringing the issue back for a public discussion after hearing concerns from community members.
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Watsonville officials will revisit the city’s contract with controversial surveillance technology company Flock Safety on Tuesday evening, just a year after it renewed its agreement, amid growing concerns from community members.
Last year, the city council approved renewal of a two-year contract with the license-plate reader company and added 17 cameras. Watsonville, with 37 cameras across the city, has the largest number of Flock cameras of any jurisdiction in Santa Cruz County; Capitola, the only other jurisdiction in the county with Flock cameras, has 10.
Councilmember Ari Parker, who voted in favor of the contract renewal last year, suggested at the council’s previous meetings to bring back the issue for a public discussion after hearing concerns from residents in her district and doing her own research.
“A year ago when we voted to add all these Flock cameras to our already existing cameras, I knew it was controversial,” Parker said. “I knew a lot of people felt that it was a disservice to our community. But there were a lot of people who didn’t feel that way at all.”
Parker said that the seven-member city council had committed to continuing its conversation surrounding Flock, and now a year into its two-year agreement, she believed it was time to bring the issue back to the dais.
The city council will have the option to make a decision on its Flock contract following its discussion and a presentation from Watsonville Police Chief Brian Shab, said Parker.
According to a staff report, the city council could do one of five things: maintain its current contract with the Atlanta-based company with no changes, revise the police department’s policies regarding the use of the cameras, direct staff to “serve notice” that it will not renew its contract in 2027, negotiate with Flock to make changes to its contact, or direct staff to serve the required 30-day notice to cancel its contract.
“I think that’s important for people to understand. We don’t just sit there and listen and then do nothing,” Parker said. “We can choose to keep it unchanging. We can choose to modify it in some way. We can choose to shut it down. There’s tons of choices.”
In the past few months, there’s been a growing effort to get Watsonville to end its contract with Flock Safety after the City of Santa Cruz canceled its agreement with the company. Organizers with Get the Flock Out, or GTFO, have previously told Lookout they’ve been having conversations with Watsonville elected officials.
Parker isn’t the only city councilmember rethinking their views on the cameras. Casey Clark told Lookout in August that his perspective on the cameras is changing, too. Both of their concerns primarily focus on privacy and potential misuse of the technology.
The cameras automatically log license plates and other identifying details about every car that passes through their field of view. Unflagged data collected from these license-plate readers is stored for seven days before being permanently erased. However, an exception applies if a clip becomes part of an ongoing investigation. Watsonville can also grant access to footage to outside law enforcement agencies if requested.
In a social media post over the weekend, Shab said that “Flock has helped our officers and detectives develop leads in serious investigations” and has supported officers in solving crimes, such as hit-and-runs and attempted homicides. In his statement, Shab said the “tool that day after day helps our officers keep our community safe is at risk.”
Earlier this year, he told Lookout that the cameras are helpful, especially at a time when most police departments are struggling with staffing issues, and leveraging this type of technology in a fair and transparent way is a game-changer.
Critics of the technology, locally and nationally, argue that Flock’s network allows law enforcement agencies to track, log and share an individual’s movements without a warrant and with few regulations. The company has also faced criticism for sharing information directly with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Last winter, members of GTFO reported that a former Georgia police chief searched Capitola’s Flock data in early 2025 to stalk and harass private citizens.
Parker said she’s ready for Tuesday evening’s conversation, to ask Shab about statistics related to Watsonville’s use of Flock cameras, and to hear what both her colleagues on the city council and community members have to say. She’s hoping that the discussion will clarify questions and any concerns she might have about the cameras.
“We’ll have a great conversation. It will be somewhat divisive for people on outer fringes of both sides, and those people in the middle will understand that humanity has a big responsibility here for this technology and technology like it,” Parker said.
The Watsonville City Council will meet Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at 275 Main St. (top floor). The meeting is also available to watch via Zoom.
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