Wow! in big pink letters

A bad week for Flock (but a good week for privacy and local organizing) in Washington state!

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Wow!  As the pushback against Flock and other ALPRs grows all around the country, Washington state is doing its part!  Over the last two days:

  • Issaquah City Council voted for a moratorium on ALPR usage — not just Flock, but all ALPRs
  • Redmond voted to cancel their contract with Flock.  They’re the fourth city in Washington to cancel their Flock contract, joining Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, and Edmonds
  • Renton City Council voted to continue their pause on Flock cameras — and do a detailed review of their Flock contract.
  • Auburn City Council narrowly voted not to review their ALPR policies or contracts yet … but the vote was only 4-3, and activism is just starting to crank up, so it’s far from over.

When the statewide law (SB 6002, also known as the Driver Privacy Act) passed this spring, there was a lot of concern that it would take the energy away from local organizing.  That clearly hasn’t happened!  There’s broad understanding that (as Representative Brianna Thomas said in the House floor debate) “the safeguards in this bill do not go far enough to match the power of the technology.”  Similarly, SB 6002 sponsor Senator Yasmin Trudeau has describes its guardrails as “a floor, not a ceiling” — and emphasized that it’s not an endorsement of the technology.

And it’s local organizing that’s made the difference in all these cities. On Monday night in Renton, 29 people gave public comment against ALPRs — and nobody spoke in favor, even though the police chief had encouraged supporters to show up. The comments were impressively insightful, passionate, powerful, and well-researched … people really care about this issue!  Redmond councilmembers cited the outpouring of concern from the community, including a lot of people who weren’t usually engaged.  So thanks and congratulations to everybody who contributed, and to organizers like Deflock Redmond, No Flock in Issaquah, For a Better Redmond, and Southend Indivisible for all their work.

Of course, there’s still a lot more to do.  There’s still clearly a lot of convincing needed in Auburn. The battle in Renton is likely to continue once councilmembers had a chance to review the contract. Flock isn’t the only ALPR company out there; cities in other states have replaced Flock with Axon, which hasn’t gotten as much bad press but isn’t really any better … so we’ll have to be alert for that here.  And of course there are still lots of cities and counties that haven’t turned off their ALPRs yet, and all the privately run ALPRs from companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Still, these were some major victories — and really build the momentum going into the National ALPR Week of Action (August 16-22).  Congratulations once again to everybody involved!

 

Image credit: originally from Pixabay, published under CC0, via picryl.

28 thoughts on “A bad week for Flock (but a good week for privacy and local organizing) in Washington state!”

    • They’ve been up along Hwy 2 just east of Monroe for a while now. The backroads around Hwy 2 have been flocked also, there’s no way to avoid being filmed if you want to go this way

        • There’s not much local opposition, likely because the bulk of people here are ignorant of what they are and need to be educated as to why they’re bad

          There’s also a sizable minority who equate surveillance with ICE and view it in a positive light

          • Yeah, the people who equate surveillance with ICE and view it in a positive light are very difficult to reach … that’s who I was thinking of when I mentioned the challenging dynamics.

          • I’m an antisocial computer nerd and the wrong person to ask, but:

            A lot of latino families have moved into the little Hwy 2 towns (and really cleaned them up) and they tend to have close knit communities. Identify one of their social leaders and ask them to help educate their community?

          • The right wingers are the same in practice except their community is just shared xenophobia. Identifying a receptive person that’s willing to spread the idea that Flock is bad might be challenging

            In either case delegating to existing community leaders and supporting them seems the most effective

          • If there’s less social (no joke I have the charisma of a potato) stuff I can help with in the area please do reach out

            In the meantime I’ll ask some of my neighbors if they’re aware of those cameras and what their feelings are towards them

  2. The members of Congress who are pretending to resist the Trump and Netanyahu regimes are traitors to U.S. Citizens! Our founding fathers would be appalled by your treason and cowardice! Disgusting and shameful!😰

    • It won’t happen next week but it’s certainly a risk — I mention that in the article. Renton already uses Axon mobile ALPRs (currently paused because of SB 6002); Redmond has Axon drones. But, a lot of public comment was about ALPRs in general (not just Flock) so is good prep for the next battle

  5. If you’re interested in organizing against Flock — or other ALPRs like Axon — in your area, look to see if there’s a @deflock.org group somewhere near you.

    And, coming up in August, it’s the National Week of Action against ALPRs! Sign up to vind out about events near you.

    noalprs.com

  6. Wish Newcastle would do the same. Even though someone had slapped a Flock sticker on the poles where they are mounted…it’s been removed 🤬 Interestingly enough ICE was pulling cars over where all those are…coincidink? I think not!

  7. Regardless of any regulations, Thiel will collect the data from every single camera. Do you think he really gives a damn about laws and regulations? The only way to fix this is to eliminate his collection of the data to start with? Hell no. He doesn’t give a damn about law and order. Control.

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