The Florence City Council voted Monday to continue their contract with private automatic license plate company Flock Safety.
The 3-2 decision comes after outcry about privacy and fears the technology could be abused. The move comes after Eugene and Springfield both ended their contract last year with the company, after cameras were remotely turned back on by Flock at least once in each city after the city council ordered them turned off.
Florence now has six Flock cameras, the first of which it acquired in early 2024. The devices take searchable photos of vehicles and stores them for 30 days. Flock Safety is a national company with contracts in Washington, California, as well as non-sanctuary states such as Texas.
Councilor Sally Wantz, who argued for turning the cameras off during Monday’s meeting, said Florence shouldn’t collect data that could be turned against its own residents by federal officials.
"I don't want to give them any possibility of retrieving information from our cameras,” she said. “It's just a matter of time [until] they get into our Flock system. I don't want to subject our citizens to that possibility."
Councilor Mike Webb, who voted to continue using Flock, said it’s an effective tool and helps police operate more efficiently.
"I think this has become way too political,” Webb said during the meeting. “I support continuing to keep the Flock cameras in action. I think the locations of the cameras within the community at the perimeter of the community helps to keep our people safe."
During the meeting, Florence Police Chief John Pitcher said he restricted access to the city’s system to only Oregon agencies, added a transparency portal, and required officers to provide more specific justification for their searches.
"We welcome the community holding the Florence Police Department accountable,” he said. “We welcome that, we want that, and they should."
Pitcher said audits he released to the public show those searches, though he redacts officers’ names and does not reveal details that could compromise investigations.
“For individual officers, department members, it's my responsibility to hold them accountable and make sure they’re following policies,” Pitcher said.
Florence leaders said they are monitoring lawmaker’s efforts to regulate automatic license plate readers statewide this legislative session and will adjust to whatever policy lawmakers approve.
Lawmakers are considering requiring data to be encrypted, restricting retention time and tight restrictions on who can access data.
