Renton Council delays vote on turning on ALPR, Flock cameras

Published 4:30 pm Thursday, July 9, 2026

The Renton City Council delayed a vote to turn on Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras in the city.

At the July 6 meeting, the Renton City Council voted to essentially table a vote on un-pausing the ALPR cameras in the city until all council members have completed an orientation and training on the technology provided by the Renton Police Department.

The council paused the police’s use of the cameras on May 4 for the council members to “get more information to address the concerns of the public” on the technology. This includes Flock Falcon cameras, Axon in-car ALPRs and Genetec ALPRs in the police’s parking enforcement vehicles.

Councilmember James Alberson made a motion to un-pause the cameras at the July 6 meeting and spoke on some of the concerns the public has voiced in regards to access to the data, public surveillance, how the system is used, abuse by authorized users, immigration enforcement access and tracking abortion seekers.

Alberson said the technology the Renton police uses, Flock Falcon, only takes still images, not video. The images show the rear of the vehicle and the license plate only, not the driver of the vehicle.

To search the collected data, officers must enter the offense type, the case number, a specific offense category and the class of crime. Alberson said this goes beyond what the state requires. The city of Renton said on their website the access to ALPR data is “strictly limited,” with every search logged and auditable.

“You have to decide at some point, you have to say… do I trust the integrity of the Renton Police Department? Because that’s essentially what you’re saying is you don’t,” Alberson said. “You don’t believe in their integrity and I’m of the belief that RPD has one of the highest integrity levels in the state as far as police departments from what I’ve seen over the years.”

Alberson said in a two-week period from April 22to May 2, the cameras captured 5,271,962 images, but officers only viewed 461 in 390 searches. These searches were for weapons offenses, homicide and death investigations, and assault and battery cases.

“When you talk about surveillance, I find it ironic that a lot of people who come up and read this or voice of opposition, are reading from one of the probably the most sophisticated surveillance tools out there. If you don’t like surveillance, get rid of your cell phone. It’s as simple as that,” Alderson said. “They can find out where you are anytime.”

Councilmember Carmen Rivera said she has concerns that neither she nor the other “women of color” on the city council have had their scheduled tours of Flock. Council President Ruth Pérez said the reason their tours have not been scheduled is because of their own conflicts. Alberson said he is seeing a “lack of urgency to get the education to address this appropriately.”

“The idea around urgency is insulting when we all have very different schedules and I actually haven’t even received any, really many that offers of dates to be honest with you,” Rivera said. “There wasn’t that much urgency when it came to scheduling my meetings.”

Councilmember Valerie O’Halleran proposed they amend the motion to reconsider the question of restarting ALPR cameras, or permanently keeping the camera system turned off, until after all council members have received their Flock camera orientation. The council unanimously passed the amendment and the amended motion.