Kalispell residents press council on proposed license plate readers
The short version: Kalispell residents packed a town hall to challenge a proposed ALPR network, showing that local pushback can slow surveillance expansion before it starts.
Our Take
Credit to the Daily Inter Lake for capturing this one on camera, because it's exactly the kind of meeting that usually happens with ten people in a half-empty room. Instead, Kalispell residents showed up in force to question why their city needs a network of license plate readers logging every car that passes through town. That's the fight at its most winnable stage — before the cameras go up, before the vendor contract is signed, before "it's already installed" becomes the excuse for inaction.
What's notable is that this is playing out in a small Montana city, not just in big metro areas. Flock Safety and its competitors have been pitching ALPR systems to municipalities of every size, often with the promise that it's just for stolen cars or Amber Alerts. Residents at this meeting clearly aren't buying the pitch at face value, and they're right to ask hard questions about data retention, who gets access to the logs, and whether a private company ends up holding a permanent record of where everyone in town drives.
This is the playbook other towns should be following: show up, ask for the contract details, demand audit logs, and don't let council members wave it through on a consent agenda. Check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and if you want to push back where you live, our take-action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Daily Inter Lake, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.