As Flock Vote Looms, Berkeley Police Hail License Plate Readers For Help In Series Of Crimes

BERKELEY, CA — As city officials get ready to vote on whether to approve a controversial Flock Safety contract, Berkeley police are praising one of the many devices from the surveillance company that helps aid its work: automated license plate readers.

Police say ALPRs helped the department with several crimes "might otherwise have gone undetected" without Flock technology, over eight hours on Tuesday.

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The earliest incident happened just after noon, when the department received an alert that someone in a vehicle stolen out of Fremont entered Berkeley, according to the Berkeley Police Department.

"They located a matching vehicle parked in the Whole Foods lot at Ashby and Telegraph," police said. While the make, model, and color aligned, it was ultimately determined to be a different vehicle with stolen or switched license plates."

The ALPR then went on to help officers flag down a vehicle linked to a theft from Sunglasses Hut in Palo Alto, another vehicle involved in grand theft at a Macy's, a vehicle involved in a grand theft in Walnut Creek, a mail theft in Downtown Berkeley and an organized retail theft in Emeryville, police said.

"Across each of these incidents, ALPR technology played a critical role in enabling swift, coordinated responses—strengthening regional partnerships, improving case outcomes, and helping prevent additional crimes from occurring," police said.

But the use of Flock Safety devices, such as ALPRs, by police departments has been controversial, with some raising concerns about privacy and data sharing.

In California, pressure has mounted for cities to terminate their contract with Flock Safety over issues with ICE potentially accessing data from local departments.

Flock claims it does not share data with ICE and that each department can choose whether it wants to manually share data with the agency. Many police departments in Southern California have been accused of doing just that.

Multiple councilmembers in Berkeley have called for the rejection of the Flock contract.

At least one city official said "Flock has failed to proactively safeguard data, ensure compliance with contracts, and uphold the legal and ethical standards of the communities it serves," according to The DailyCal.