The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted to discontinue their contract with Flock Safety on Tuesday, following a seven-hour meeting where more than 70 community members showed up to voice their concerns.
The Flock issue took up five hours of the unusually long meeting. Half of that period was dedicated to what District 2 Supervisor Glenn Church described as “the longest public comment ever heard” in his tenure, which began in January 2023.
Of the 74 community members who showed up to speak about the Flock contract, about 70 were categorically opposed. Only two individuals voiced support, while another two expressed feelings that could be described as ambivalent.
“I want to thank everybody who came and spoke here today,” said Church. “Part of the issue here is, we live in a surveillance society. You go out and there’s cameras on us everywhere, and that’s part of the frustration I think people are feeling…I think every time it can be raised to discuss, it’s good.”
Discussion of the Flock issue opened with a presentation by Undersheriff Keith Boyd, who outlined key details of the proposal. That proposal had shifted since it was first brought to the Board on Aug. 25 – the Sheriff’s Office walked back their initial request to expand the automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera network by 40 cameras, and were instead seeking to renew their contract for the existing 63 cameras.
“ALPR provides law enforcement with something that is extremely valuable in a criminal investigation: information,” said Boyd. “It can help investigators determine whether a vehicle associated with a crime was in a particular area, identify potential investigative leads, and connect information that otherwise might take significant personnel time to develop, or may never be identified at all.”
District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni also spoke put her lawyerly skills to the test in defense of the proposal. After rattling off a list of cases she claimed could not have been solved without the help of ALPR technology, she declared that “the technology makes our county safer, and with the right oversight, it does so without compromising the rights that we’re all here to protect.”
Boyd and Pacioni’s words proved ineffective in the court of public opinion. Community members seemed equally unimpressed when both representatives of the Sheriff’s Office walked out of the meeting moments before the public comment period began, a decision several commenters noted and called out in their statements.
Part of what made the renewal proposal unfavorable to even the most open-minded in the community – and on the Board – was its 10-year duration. If the Board had moved to cancel the contract early, Flock would’ve charged the County of Monterey a cancellation fee ranging from around $50,000 to over $150,000, depending on how many years into the contract the cancellation took place.
“I get that these cameras help solve some cases, but…these don’t mean locking our whole community into a 10-year contract of being tracked, especially with a system that’s already broken the law once,” said 13-year-old Noah, the first and youngest public commenter at the meeting. “I’m going to grow up under these contracts. When I learn to drive and go to school and see my friends, I’ll be watched for the next decade without getting a say.”
The Board of Supervisors ultimately rejected the proposal by a 3-2 vote, with Glenn Church, Wendy Root Askew and Kate Daniels – Supervisors of Districts 2, 4 and 5, respectively – in the majority, and Supervisors Luis Alejo of District 1 and Chris Lopez of District 3 dissenting.
In a press statement regarding the Board’s decision, the Sheriff’s Office reiterated the benefits of ALPR technology and lamented its loss as an investigative tool. Nonetheless, they stopped short of criticizing the decision outright and said they respected everyone who showed up at the meeting to make their voices heard.
“Over the past three years, residents in our rural and unincorporated communities have come to the Sheriff’s Office asking for more law enforcement presence in their areas,” said Undersheriff Boyd. “The desire of those communities…does not disappear because of this decision by a majority of the Board. We hear those residents too. Their voices matter, and our commitment to their safety and the safety of our county as a whole remains unchanged.”
Local advocacy group Roots of Resistance – organizers of last week’s “Get the Flock Out” protest, and of the larger anti-Flock movement in Monterey County – struck a triumphant tone on social media while emphasizing that their fight is far from over.
“We are so grateful to all the community members who showed up…And we are grateful to Supervisors Daniels, Root Askew and Church for hearing the people of the community and representing us the way they are supposed to,” they said in a prepared statement. “We are coming for all the city/police department contracts next – including the DA’s! Together, we will get the Flock out of our communities.”