Palo Alto City Council Candidates' Position on Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)

Our Take

Credit to Matt Schlegel for pointing a camera at something most local news skips: making city council candidates go on record about license plate surveillance in their own town. Forums run by chambers of commerce rarely dig into ALPR policy, so the fact that Palo Alto candidates were asked directly where they stand is worth highlighting on its own. Whatever they said, the moment they're forced to answer publicly is a win for transparency.

This is exactly how these fights get won or lost — not in some abstract national debate, but at the city council level, where budgets, vendor contracts, and data-sharing agreements with Flock Safety actually get approved or rejected. Candidates who dodge specifics on retention periods, audit access, or ICE/out-of-state data sharing should be pressed harder, and voters deserve to know before Election Day, not after a camera goes up on their street.

If you want to see whether Palo Alto already has ALPR infrastructure in place, check our camera map. And if this forum reminds you that your own city council has never had to answer these questions, our take-action guide walks you through how to make them.