Renton, Wash., has about two dozen Flock Safety license plate cameras covered in black plastic and switched off since the City Council voted 4-3 in May to pause them. The two-year, nearly $170,000 contract behind them was set to end Nov. 2, KUOW reported on Oct. 16, and if the council took no action the cameras would be taken down.
I found no record of the council voting to renew it. Police Chief Jon Schuldt told KUOW that Flock has helped identify suspects in drive-by shootings, child sex crimes and homicides, including a triple murder, and that any new deal would have to be renegotiated to fit Washington’s new law. Councilmember Carmen Rivera, who voted against turning the cameras back on, is skeptical of Flock but trusts Renton’s police, KUOW reported.
Months of pauses, no verdict
The department stopped using its plate readers after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed Senate Bill 6002, the Driver Privacy Act, on March 30. Schuldt told the council on April 6 that Renton had ‘put a pause on all of our ALPR usage,’ the Kent Reporter reported, and that one Flock camera’s view touched a protected area and would have to be moved. KUOW reported that the cameras came back on in April and went dark again after the May vote. Renton’s ALPR page lists 24 Flock Falcon cameras at major intersections and roads.
The August meeting settled nothing. A motion by Councilmember Kim-Khánh Văn to direct the city not to renew drew votes from only Văn and Rivera, the Renton Reporter said. A motion by Councilmember James Alberson to turn the cameras back on tied 3-3, then failed when Ed Prince changed his vote, according to KUOW. Council President Ruth Pérez was absent. Councilmembers Ryan McIrvin and Prince said they would wait for a public town hall before deciding on renewal, the Reporter said.
In July, Mayor Armondo Pavone said the chief had no intention of unpausing the system until the technology catches up, the Kent Reporter reported. A police spokesperson said the in-car readers could not yet disable themselves near schools, places of worship and reproductive health care providers, which the state law requires.
A 2024 contract meets a 2026 statute
Renton’s contract was written in 2024 and expires this month, the Renton Reporter said. Schuldt said a draft letter to Flock was ready to bring it into line with the new law, including changing data retention from 30 days to 21. The Reporter also said the contract has an automatic renewal clause that police told Flock they did not want to take effect, and that Commander Denis Moyihan said the contract lets the city exit without penalty for certain violations. The city’s ALPR page does not post the contract’s terms.
The law reaches the vendor as well as the city, which makes a renewal look more like a new contract. Under section 5 of the session law, a vendor must provide technical controls against unauthorized sharing, may not change the system without the agency’s knowledge or consent (updates affecting sharing included), and must default sharing settings to no sharing. Section 9 makes a violation by a company that contracts with an agency an unfair or deceptive act under the state Consumer Protection Act. Section 11 lets an injured person sue for damages and attorney’s fees, and section 10 makes willful misuse of the data a gross misdemeanor.
Sharing was Washington’s original problem. A University of Washington Center for Human Rights report in October 2025 found that Border Patrol had searched Washington police Flock networks. The Renton Reporter said Renton’s audit log, obtained through a public records request, shows two searches by Border Patrol on June 23, 2025. Flock says it now limits sharing to Washington agencies, and section 3 of the statute makes using plate readers for immigration enforcement unlawful.
What the cameras recorded before they went dark
The city’s page gives a 16-day snapshot, April 22 to May 7: 5,271,962 images captured, 390 authorized searches and 71 alerts. Officers looked at about 0.008% of the images, the city says. Each search needed an offense type and a case number, and the page says an alert alone does not establish probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Section 3(6) of the statute says the same: a match is not reasonable suspicion for a stop, so an officer needs independent suspicion or has to visually confirm the plate and verify it another way.
The page does not give arrests or cases cleared, and neither did KUOW. Schuldt said the department has a stack of cases where Flock was used and that no officer has told him the cameras were unhelpful, the Renton Reporter said.
The cost is simple division. Nearly $170,000 over 24 months is about $7,100 a month, or roughly $3,500 per camera per year. If payments ran evenly (the city lists no payment schedule), the six months from May to Nov. 2 come to about $42,000 for cameras police could not use. That is The Auto Wire’s arithmetic, not the city’s.
What the council decides next
Renton isn’t the only city doing this math. KUOW counted about 80 Washington jurisdictions with Flock contracts and said Redmond, Olympia and Lynnwood have dropped or paused theirs. Elsewhere, Alexandria, Va., told Flock to discontinue service and expected all 61 of its cameras dark within days, and The Auto Wire reported that Flock plans to cut about 270 jobs as cities walk away. Tempe, Ariz., passed a ban of its own with a lawyer’s memo attached to it.
Any new Renton deal would be signed before the state’s own guidance exists. The Attorney General’s model policies are not due until July 1, 2027, and agencies have until Dec. 1, 2027 to adopt policies and submit them, under section 7. Section 3(5) gave agencies 180 days from March 30, which works out to about Sept. 26, to register their systems with the Attorney General, and an unregistered system may not be used. I could not find a public record showing whether Renton registered its cameras.
Rivera linked the debate to November elections, including the mayor’s re-election, KUOW reported, and McIrvin and Prince are waiting on the town hall. The cameras remain covered. Next comes whether the council schedules a vote on a new contract written to SB 6002 or lets the question end with the old one.
Twenty-four cameras have sat under black plastic for six months, and by our arithmetic roughly $42,000 of contract time went with them. If you live in Renton, what would the chief have to show you before you’d want them back on?