Residents urge Shelton council not to renew Flock Safety camera contract; staff to brief council in study session

Dozens of residents urged the Shelton City Council on July 21 to pause or cancel plans to renew the city’s contract with Flock Safety, the private license-plate–reading camera vendor, saying the system threatens privacy and has produced errors and documented misuse elsewhere.

"I am here today to ask that the city remove the Flock cameras that are recording my movements throughout," said Sherry Dysart, a Mason County resident who told the council she avoids living inside city limits but shops in Shelton. "I don't need government surveillance to make me feel safer."

Speakers who signed up to comment cited similar concerns. Devlin Finney asked council to disclose where contract funds came from, how long data are retained and whether Flock’s system is set to allow statewide or national access. Julianne Gale summarized independent reports and examples she said show automatic-license-plate-reader (ALPR) errors and subsequent wrongful detentions and civil suits in other jurisdictions. Halsey Kalinin pointed to cities that have canceled or suspended Flock programs and urged Shelton to follow suit.

Several speakers described data-security incidents or alleged internal misuse by personnel, and said the technology is marketed beyond police departments to HOAs, businesses and schools. "History has shown that when surveillance technology exists, it's eventually used in ways that were never promised when it was first adopted," Kalinin said.

City manager Mark Ziegler told the council the existing Flock arrangement is structured like a subscription with built-in renewal terms and that routine renewals do not automatically return to the council for approval. He said staff will prepare a study-session presentation for council and the public covering the system’s capabilities and the controls in place locally, along with recent state legislation that places constraints on how such data can be used.

"We'll be developing a presentation to come to council at a future study session to further inform the council and the public of the capabilities of our Flock system, what kind of controls are in place, more information about the recent legislation the state passed too, and put specific controls and constraints on the use of this information," Ziegler said.

Council members asked staff to bring the study-session briefing sooner rather than later and signaled they had heard the residents’ concerns. No formal renewal vote occurred at the July 21 meeting; several speakers explicitly requested the council delay or decline renewal when the contract next comes up.

What happens next: Staff will present the informational study session on the Flock system for the council and public; any decision to renew, amend or cancel the contract would require future council action.