Some Flock cameras in Eugene may have been online several weeks after the city ordered them to be turned off.
Eugene asked Flock Safety to shut down its AI-powered license plate readers in October, after community members raised concerns about privacy and potential misuse by federal law enforcement.
But as of Monday, Flock’s online data showed recent activity in the city, with Eugene Police’s cameras detecting nearly 8,500 unique vehicles in the past 30 days. That period lies entirely after the time when the city told Flock to turn the cameras off.
That rate of capture is far slower than it was just before city officials moved to pause the program, when the 30-day counts exceeded 500,000 unique vehicles.
However, Eyes off Eugene organizer Ky Fireside said the discovery supports the oversight issues that community members have been talking about for months.
“The police don't have control over these devices,” said Fireside. “The company has control over it.”
Eugene’s independent police auditor, Craig Renetzky, said his office has now launched a preliminary investigation into the issue.
“Even though it sounds like the contract was ended, that does not preclude us from doing a full investigation,” said Renetzky.
The Eugene Police Department and Flock didn’t immediately provide details about how the detections in Eugene happened.
In November, Springfield said one of its Flock cameras was accidentally turned on after the system falsely flagged the device for repair. Springfield Police had installed 24 of the cameras, but had said it wouldn’t turn them on until the city had a community conversation about the technology.
Cutting ties with Flock
Fireside said they notified city officials about the data last Wednesday, and met with the police auditor on Friday.
Hours later, both Eugene and Springfield announced they were ending their contracts with Flock, citing the cameras’ “vulnerabilities and limitations.”
The City of Springfield and the Eugene Police Department didn’t immediately clarify whether the Eugene detection data was a factor in ending the contracts.
Fireside said the cities need to be more transparent about what exactly caused the cities to make this sudden announcement.
“After business hours on a Friday evening—to me, that sounds like they found something really bad that required urgent action,” said Fireside. “It just seems like something happened, and I don't understand what.”
Eugene Police spokesperson Melinda McLaughlin said there isn’t yet a timeline on when the cameras in Eugene will be removed.
The City of Springfield has said it plans to cover and remove the cameras, but didn’t respond to a request for more information.
