Mountlake Terrace will be installing a camera system that tracks license plates. The goal is to find stolen cars and people who’ve committed crimes.
The city council greenlit the two-year $54,000 contract with Flock Safety on June 5.
Mountlake Terrace Police Cmdr. Scott King said his department began researching the system after hearing about its success in neighboring cities.
King said he is proposing nine cameras for the city.
“The placement of these cameras is based on where we likely think people will be running from after they commit a crime. They are main city roads, not neighborhoods,” King said at the meeting. “We also considered the locations based on where Edmonds and Lynnwood are placing their cameras, so we get the most bang for our buck.”
According to Flock Safety’s website, the cameras can identify vehicles by make, color, decals, and license plate numbers.
The data is only stored for 30 days, at which point it will be deleted and unrecoverable. The only way to keep it past that period would be through a council vote, according to King.
He told the city council that the department will track the quarterly success of the system and report back about whether it’s helping reduce crime.
The data can also be shared with other law enforcement agencies if the department wishes. Some community members raised concerns about Flock giving its data to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but King said that wouldn’t be allowed.
“If an agency uses our information for reasons we don’t approve of, I can automatically delete them from our system with the push of a button,” he assured.
King said there will be a transparency portal available on the department’s website where the public can check and see what they’re doing.
“There will be a public audit file within the transparency portal,” he said. “This will show what searches have been done, reasons for the search, and the actual cameras used in the search.”
No word on when the cameras will be installed.
Approximately 80 cities in Washington have installed Flock cameras.