Redmond police discuss Flock surveillance cameras amid pushback

Our Take

KING 5's report gives Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe a platform to make the case every Flock-adopting department makes: the cameras solve crimes, so what's the problem? The problem is that "it helped us once" is not an argument for a network that logs the movements of every driver, every day, whether or not they're suspected of anything. That's the trade nobody in these press conferences wants to spell out plainly.

Pushback from residents is the actual news here, and it's a healthy sign. Community members in Redmond are asking the questions city councils rarely ask before signing the contract: who can query this data, how long is it kept, and what stops it from becoming a tool for something other than solving burglaries. Chiefs love to talk about the win column. They're a lot quieter about audits, mission creep, and the fact that ALPR data has already been used in ways well outside "violent crime investigation" in other jurisdictions.

Redmond isn't unique — it's one node in a rapidly expanding national network, and residents there deserve to know exactly where these cameras sit and who's watching. Check our camera map to see what's already been deployed near you, and if Redmond's debate sounds familiar, our take-action page has tools for pushing back before city hall rubber-stamps the next contract. Credit to KING 5 Seattle for putting this fight on camera.