Camera crackdown? Not here: Yakima County expands 'Flock' use
The short version: While other jurisdictions reconsider ALPR contracts, Apple Valley News Now reports Yakima County is doubling down and expanding its Flock Safety camera network.
Our Take
Credit to Apple Valley News Now for flagging the disconnect here: as more cities and counties nationwide face lawsuits, audits, and public pushback over Flock Safety's automated license plate readers, Yakima County is moving in the opposite direction and growing its network. That's the pattern we keep seeing — officials treat ALPR expansion as a routine procurement decision rather than a surveillance policy question that deserves public debate, data-retention limits, and independent oversight before more cameras go up.
Every new camera means more plates logged, more travel patterns stored, and more data shared across a system that was never built with meaningful local accountability in mind. 'Expansion' rarely comes with a public vote on how long that data sits in Flock's servers, who else can query it, or what happens when the inevitable misuse or breach occurs. Yakima County residents deserve those answers before the rollout, not after.
If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras are already watching your routes, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back than just watch it happen, our take-action page has concrete steps for raising this with local officials.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Apple Valley News Now - Official, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.