Renton City Council votes to cover Flock cameras

Published 10:57 am Thursday, August 6, 2026

The city of Renton will be covering all of the Flock automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras in the city’s jurisdiction.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, the Renton City Council voted to cover all the Flock safety cameras in the city. These cameras have remained off since the council paused the police department’s use of all ALPR cameras on May 4. The council later voted to turn on the ALPR Axon in-car cameras in police vehicles and the ALPR Genetec cameras in parking enforcement vehicles back on, while keeping the Flock cameras off, at the July 22 meeting.

“We’ve been hearing a lot of concerns around transparency and trust, and I think it’s in the best direction to help foster that by listening to the public,” Councilmember Carmen Rivera said. “The camera’s already paused. They’re not collecting anything. If it’s safe and if it’s within the purview of our staff to be able to do it, I think it’s something that is just some easy simple fix that tells the residents one that we’re listening and that we’re trying to foster that trust and that transparency.”

Councilmember James Alberson said since the cameras were turned off already, that “covering the cameras is not an exhibition of trust” with the Renton Police Department.

“It is it is an action saying, ‘Hey, listen, the cameras are off, but you know, maybe they aren’t off. We’ll cover them up,’” Alberson said. “What you’re asking is for additional work from the staff that is not minuscule.”

Councilmember Kim-Khánh Văn, who proposed the motion, said the public’s trust in the police department was already breached when the cameras were turned back on without community notice, after they were initially turned off on March 30 to ensure they comply with new Washington State Bill 6002.

“It’s real fear from our community getting disappeared and I think that it’s important for us to do that as I’ve heard from community members and for us to also have the opportunity to um build that trust with community,” Văn said.

Văn said the intention is to keep them covered until they are dismantled or they decide to renew their contract with Flock.

Councilmember Ryan McIrvin said the distrust is not with the city, but the operator of the software.

“I believe that they’re off, but I can’t say that I 100% know that other people aren’t able to extract that and I’m not maybe that’s an issue of me not understanding the technology enough,” McIrvin said. “For me, this is a relatively low cost, low-effort.”

Alberson said to cover the cameras insinuates the police department does not know if the cameras are on or off, or that they don’t trust the department will keep the cameras off. Rivera argued this has little to do with the police department.

“My issue is with Flock. It is with this data collection company. It is not a public safety company. All right? Not like Axon that’s been around since the 90s,” Rivera said. “When it comes to a data collection company, do I trust in my heart of hearts that they aren’t checking in? I don’t know. Right. And that’s the thing that is in the unknown.”

All of the council members, except for Alberson, voted in favor of the motion.

Văn then proposed the city and the police department to host a town hall to present a Flock camera orientation to the public, similar to what the council received. She said she would like to see this happen in the next two weeks.

“I think it is priority, having community members disappeared and not having community understanding, the actual Flock in implementation in Renton and the confusion that it caused,” Văn said. “Let’s not create more confusion and just have the folks who are giving us orientation to give that to the community.”

Councilmembers Valerie O’Halloran and Rivera said they supported this motion.

“I think that this would help with a lot of the questions, concerns, and just foster, I think, good civil discourse on the issues when it comes to Flock,” Rivera said. “I think with how much we’ve seen communication on Facebook and in other means, I think getting in person is the best.”

This motion was approved unanimously. The date for the town hall has not yet been disclosed.