Watsonville approves $250K contract expansion for 17 new Flock surveillance cameras
Ata Shaheen
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV) — Watsonville is almost doubling the amount of Flock license-plate-reading cameras.
The city council voted to expand police surveillance despite an extraordinary showing of public commenters from the group Get the Flock Out.
Watsonville city council voted 5 to 2 Tuesday evening give the police department a quarter of a million dollars to expand its contract with Flock Safety.
Upon adoption, the audience in the council chambers erupted with booing and chants of “shame.”
The council had just listened to dozens of public comments denouncing the cameras.
“Not only do we not need to go 37, we need to talk about taking down the 20,” said one public commenter, eliciting cheers and applause.
Organizers with Get the Flock Out are concerned about privacy and personal freedoms, and what the cameras could mean for Watsonville’s immigrant community amid the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown.
“The only way to make sure that surveillance data are not used to help ICE terrorize, kidnap, and deport members of our community is to not collect it at all,” said another public commenter.
Watsonville Police said the 20 flock cameras already up have been a big help with recovering stolen cars, tracking missing persons, and making police chases safer.
“We all want privacy. So some privacy measures that are already in place, that you deploy. All data is owned by Watsonville PD and will never be sold to, uh, sold to private third parties,” said Interim Police Chief David Rodriguez.
There are multiple state bills – both in effect and making way through the assembly – that regulate local cooperation with federal agencies like ICE.
“My concerns are not necessarily the integrity of the police, but the integrity of the company that they’re working with. Flock has repeatedly breached their contracts. They have let information go that was crucial to people’s safety,” said a public commenter.
One example – an Illinois state audit found Flock illegally shared data with federal agencies.
“It’s not worth it. You can sue for damages, but you can’t un-deport someone.”
Some of the public commenters said Watsonville made it clear that it doesn’t care about it’s residents.And they said they will continue fighting for a removal of the cameras around the county.There has been success in similar efforts. In late August, Evanston Illinois dropped its contract with Flock after the aforementioned state audit.