Junction City leaders will hold off on making a decision on automatic license plate readers until the city’s next budget cycle in the spring.
Junction City had been considering starting a free trial with Flock. That company’s AI cameras can identify vehicle characteristics and plates, and track a person’s movements over the course of a month. Flock, and other brands of automatic license plate readers are usually equipped with solar panels.
Some city council members and at least one community member were supportive of the technology during Tuesday’s meeting, pointing to large retailers that already use license plate readers.
But, Councilor Ken Hancock said the city’s finances are tight and the council didn’t set money aside when it passed this year’s spending plan.
He said the proposal should go through a formal budget process.
"Seven citizens in addition to the city council should have the opportunity to review this and have the opportunity to decide if they want to fund it,” Hancock said “We haven't done that yet."
The first 90 days of the trial period would have been free, but Junction City would have been on the hook for the cost after that. The contract’s value is about $29,500.
Eugene, Springfield and Lane County all terminated their contracts with Flock last year. That came after Eugene Police confirmed their camera had been turned back on after the city council ordered them turned off.
Junction City Police Chief Mark Waddell said there were already local measures in place to hold officers accountable if they misuse the technology. He said Oregon lawmakers also passed best practices and guardrails into law earlier this year.
“We have an opportunity to be better at what we do with law enforcement tools that we have out there,” he said.
He said he also understood the budget constraints Junction City is under, and said the city could use the additional time to explore free trials with multiple vendors, or learn more about accountability measures and audits available with the technology.
During Tuesday’s meeting, opponents called the technology “dystopian.” They argued the technology’s ability to track a person’s movements over a month violates their Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches.
Flock specifically has also been under scrutiny for allowing federal
immigration authorities access to their national network, a feature local police departments must opt-out of.
Oregon and Washington are both sanctuary states, which means law enforcement is not allowed to help with immigration enforcement. Despite that restriction, Flock camera data from the two states has ended up in the hands of immigration authorities.
Flock has said it removed some features in response to those reports, such as removing federal agencies from national lookup and adding keyword restrictions.
Some Junction City councilors said they were open to exploring similar technology from a competitor, Axon. That company makes license plate cameras alongside an array of other systems and equipment used by local police and federal agents, including drones, body cameras and Tasers.
An Axon representative was present at the meeting and shared information about their cameras with the city council. He said their national look up feature was opt-in, instead of an opt-out like Flock’s network.
In Oregon, the fiscal year begins in July. Local governments usually start their budget process in the spring, with budget committee meetings usually occurring in May and final adoption of a spending plan in June.
