Residents press Idaho Falls to amend Flock Safety camera contract, cite Idaho code and privacy concerns

Residents urged the Idaho Falls City Council to act quickly on privacy and contract terms for Flock Safety cameras, with several speakers urging interim measures while the city negotiates contract changes.

The city attorney told the meeting the legal team is in talks with Flock Safety to remove a contractual clause that currently permits the vendor to use customer data to train its artificial-intelligence systems. “We are in the process of amending the contract that we have with Flock Safety to get rid of the clause that allows Flock Safety currently to use data that’s gathered from our Flock cameras to be used to train Flock’s AI,” the attorney said.

Public commenters pressed for faster action. Finn Garren said the city’s current deployment may violate Idaho Code §49-14-32, which limits automated license-plate-reader data for nonlaw-enforcement use, and requested a timeline for action by July 29. “This section is used by Flock to take our data, use it to train their AI... which is a clear violation of Idaho code,” Garren said.

Other speakers called for immediate interim safeguards. One resident urged the council to cover cameras until contractual changes were final; another threatened coordinated tort claims if the city did not act by a stated deadline, citing an asserted per-photo damages figure.

City staff said they are negotiating contract language and expect the police department to bring additional options to council. No immediate policy change was adopted tonight; staff said they would return with proposed amendments and alternatives for council consideration.