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The Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an 18-month contract extension with surveillance infrastructure company Flock Safety for the use of law enforcement technology, including automated license plate reader cameras, in the county’s unincorporated communities.
Police departments use ALPR cameras to investigate crimes like stolen vehicles. However, privacy watchdogs have raised concerns about federal agencies being able to access the camera data – a potential violation of state law – and using it for targeted surveillance of immigrants and other vulnerable groups. 
The contract also extends the use of pan-tilt-zoom cameras that do not record license plates but are used for police investigations, drones that can be deployed as first responders to gather information, and investigative software, all of which are sold by Flock Safety.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office brought forth the proposal, calling it a “bridge” contract to ensure that officers have access to essential surveillance technology while the county develops a new request for proposals to find an alternative service provider.
Earlier in April, the supervisors had temporarily extended the contract, which expired last summer, until Tuesday.
Now, Tuesday’s 3-2 vote will extend the contract until December 2027 at a cost of $2.4 million.
This new contract will also unify the three Flock Safety technologies — ALPR cameras, PTZ cameras, and drones — into one contract after they were previously governed by three different contracts.
In his presentation, sheriff’s Sgt. Fenton Culley said that this contract would merely extend the services and technology that the department already uses and are vital components of the “Real Time Information Center,” which helps officers spot and respond to crime using various cameras and drones.
Culley emphasized that the contract prohibits Flock Safety from sharing any of the county’s data with federal or out-of-state agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, or Customs and Border Protection.
He also pointed out that since many other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area also use Flock Safety surveillance tools, the unincorporated communities would become a haven for criminals if these technologies were discontinued.
Police departments in Oakland, Richmond, and Berkeley have extended their contracts with Flock Safety since December 2025.
Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez asked the supervisors to approve the extension to ensure that her department can function to the best of its ability, adding that her department had conducted extensive community outreach to accommodate public input into the new contract.
“I’m working as a good partner, where does that partnership come in from the other side?” asked Sanchez.
During an hour-long public comment period, community members spoke both in support of and in opposition to the contract.
Proponents said that at a time when police departments are facing staffing crises, tools like ALPR cameras are essential to maintain public safety; in his presentation, Culley cited specific homicide, child sexual assault, and robbery cases in the last three months that officers could crack because of Flock Safety tools.
On the other hand, opponents raised concerns about Flock Safety’s history of working with federal immigration agencies in the past and its vulnerabilities in keeping ALPR data secure.
During deliberations, Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa Marquez asked for more time to consider the contract and make the data privacy clauses more secure.
“I had only two business days to review it [the contract], as did the rest of the public,” said Fortunato Bas. “We have to do our due diligence.”
But Supervisors David Haubert and Nate Miley said that the public safety benefits of having Flock Safety tools in the unincorporated communities of the county outweigh the potential dangers.
“These cameras are meant to keep us safe,” said Haubert. “I don’t believe that they’re widely used by ICE.”
Finally, during the vote, Supervisor Lena Tam sided with Miley and Haubert, while Fortunato Bas and Marquez voted against the contract, resulting in a 3-2 split vote for the extension.
In a news release issued Wednesday, Flock Safety’s senior director of public affairs Trevor Chandler said that in the county’s unincorporated areas, Flock ALPR cameras helped make 60 arrests, recover 53 stolen vehicles, and apprehend a murder suspect within 24 hours in 2025.
“We heard the concerns raised by residents throughout this process and will continue working with the county to strengthen the safeguards, audit controls, and oversight that keep this system accountable to the people it serves,” Chandler said.
— Story by Tanay Gokhale, Bay City News
