SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—The City of Santa Barbara has ended its contract with Flock Safety, citing concerns over privacy and how information collected by automated license plate readers could be shared.
The city’s contract with Flock expired Sunday.
Santa Barbara City Councilmember Wendy Santamaria says the decision came after residents raised concerns about what she described as mass surveillance.
“The public has been loud and clear that this type of mass surveillance is unwarranted and unwelcome in Santa Barbara,” Santamaria said. “So city leadership took the decision to end its contract with Flock.”
Santa Barbara currently has 12 Flock cameras throughout the city. Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez says the technology has been useful for public safety, including helping police identify suspects and locate missing people.
“They are able to catch perpetrators very quickly. They’re also able to identify missing people,” Gutierrez said. “So those are the tools that we really need when it comes down to protecting the public.”
But Gutierrez says the concern is how Flock data can be accessed and shared.
“It’s one thing to have surveillance for general safety. It’s another thing where the company that is providing the service is willingly giving that information out to other agencies without our consent or permission,” he said.
City considers replacing Flock with Verkada
Ending the Flock contract would not mean an end to automated license plate readers in Santa Barbara.
City staff is recommending replacing the 12 Flock cameras with cameras made by another company, Verkada.
Under the proposed system, the city would own the cameras and the data would be maintained in a closed system rather than being part of Flock’s broader network.
But Santamaria says she remains concerned.
“Verkada is another surveillance company, so we’re right back where we started,” she said.
The proposed cameras would still automatically read license plates and collect information about vehicles traveling through the city.
Ian Paige, vice president of Indivisible Santa Barbara, says the proposed system raises concerns about warrantless access to information about people's movements.
“Well, under this new system, the police department, with all of these cars that are going by, can access without going to a judge,” Paige said. “And it’s a warrantless intrusion and it’s a danger to everyone.”
Paige says he is concerned about the possibility of surveillance data being obtained through legal processes or compromised through hacking.
“We're worried that any time you establish a surveillance atmosphere with cameras that are recording the comings and goings of the people in the city, that that data, even though we might think that it's safe, is potentially subject to being obtained through maybe legal process, maybe through hacking,” he said.
Proposed system would cost about $63,000
The proposed Verkada system would cost about $57,000, with another approximately $6,000 needed to remove the existing Flock cameras.
Paige says if the city moves forward with the new system, he wants officials to put as many privacy protections in place as possible.
“If we cannot convince them to go without any kind of surveillance technology on our streets, then the as many protections as they can build into the system would be the best that we can hope for,” Paige said.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office also uses Flock cameras, but its system is separate from the city’s. The city’s decision to end its Flock contract will not affect the Sheriff’s Office system.
The Santa Barbara City Council is expected to consider the proposed replacement system Tuesday.
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