Documented Incident
Woodland City Council votes unanimously to renew Flock Safety ALPR contract
Event: February 3, 2026 · First reported: March 6, 2026 · 2 sources
On Feb. 3, the Woodland City Council voted unanimously to renew the city's contract with Flock Safety, which has supplied automated license plate reader cameras to the city since 2021. Police Chief Ryan Kinnan and Lt. Heath Parsons described uses including stolen and suspect vehicle identification, missing person cases and two instances in which cameras helped locate people in medical emergencies. Residents and Councilmember Mayra Vega raised concerns about reported out-of-state and federal access to California ALPR data, citing incidents in Capitola, Santa Cruz and Mountain View. Kinnan said Woodland maintains an annually audited access trail but acknowledged the city cannot know why other California agencies query its data.
The vote illustrates how councils are weighing reported statewide violations of California's SB 34 data-sharing restrictions against local police requests for surveillance tools, and how much oversight cities retain once their data enters a vendor-run network.
Key facts
- Vote was unanimous on Feb. 3; Woodland has contracted with Flock since 2021 and operates more than 40 cameras on public roads.
- Resident Jessica Martinez cited a November 2025 report that Capitola's Flock database was searched 3 million times by federal and out-of-state agencies, including 190 searches on behalf of ICE — searches she said violated SB 34.
- A Flock spokesperson attributed the Capitola exposure to the department opting into the company's National Lookup feature; Flock has since disabled the feature for California cities.
- Santa Cruz Councilmember Susie O'Hara said an internal audit still showed DHS and ICE searches of the city's data after Flock said the tool was disabled; Santa Cruz cancelled its contract, as did at least 30 other cities nationwide.
- In 2024 the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote to Attorney General Rob Bonta identifying more than 70 California cities they said shared ALPR data out of state in violation of state law.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Woodland City Council votes to renew Flock Safety contract (The California Aggie, March 6, 2026)
- Woodland stays with Flock cameras amid local opposition and privacy concerns (Abridged – PBS KVIE, August 11, 2026)
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About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated August 15, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.