LYNNWOOD—The Lynnwood Police Department on Friday, October 24, issued a statement to clarify and “address potential misconceptions” of its use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology in response to a recent report by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. The report titled, “Leaving the Door Wide Open: Flock Surveillance Systems and Immigration Enforcement in Washington State,” suggested that Lynnwood’s ALPR data may have been accessed for immigration-related queries raising concerns about potential misuse of ALPR data for federal immigration enforcement.
Most of the public comments on Monday focused on Lynnwood’s flock cameras. Even with council extending the public comments section to 45-minutes, instead of the allotted 30, a total of 16 comments were heard with nine of them being about flock.
Mayor Christine Frizzell defended the use of flock cameras stating they continue to play a vital role in the city’s public safety efforts, granting valuable insights on criminal activity taking place within the city, and allowing the city to “strategically deploy” its resources.
“Last week a University of Washington report on automatic license plate readers (or ALPR) data was released in which the Lynnwood Police Department’s use of the flock camera system was mentioned. In response our Chief of Police, and his team, put out a statement to the public reiterating our commitment to privacy and public safety,” said Frizzell.
Mayor Frizzell continued that there is a condition of the city’s user agreement that no law enforcement agency would have access to the system’s data and the data would not be used for immigration enforcement, tracking vehicles traveling to, and from, healthcare facilities, monitoring people’s activity protected under the First Amendment, or personal reasons including harassment.
“Recognizing that some federal law enforcement agencies have cross-deputized immigration enforcement authority we proactively restricted their access to ensure we upheld our commitment to maintaining public trust in our community,” continued Frizzell.
At its January Business Meeting, the City Council approved the Lynnwood Police Department, in a unanimous vote, to enter into a two-year agreement with Flock Safety to lease 25 of its Falcon ALPR cameras to be placed at strategic—high traffic and/or high-crime—locations around the city. The first system came online back in June.
By July of 2025, the flock cameras have detected 23 stolen vehicles each month, as well as 43 stolen plates presumably from stolen, or wanted, vehicles – which is three times the amount of recovered stolen vehicles the city of Lynnwood has recovered over the last three years.
The Flock Falcon ALPR cameras are solar and battery-powered mounted fixed aerial high-definition cameras that utilize a cellular network to scan and record license plates against a “hot list” of reported stolen or “flagged” vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week, matched in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) or state crime databases associated with a missing person in an AMBER or Silver Alert.
In the month of September, according to the LPD, the system flagged 594 vehicles that were actively being investigated for a crime. In just one month the system notified the city of a violent person associated with a vehicle 76 times, and 138 vehicles were associated with domestic violence protection orders and three missing persons. The system has also assisted the City of Lynnwood locate a missing elderly male, helped catch a suspect involved in an identity theft case at the Lynnwood Rec Center, and has helped catch active felons and those involved in an armed robbery at Alderwood Mall.
On the other hand, two days after the first flock system came online in Lynnwood, on July 1, Lynnwood City staff were alerted that law enforcement agencies from across the country appeared to have unauthorized access to the data. According to Mayor Frizzell, Lynnwood immediately began working with its vendor, Flock Safety, to determine how this occurred.
The City noticed, on July 8, that by enabling a nationwide search feature, designed to allow agencies to query license plate data beyond their state, automatically created reciprocal access for all participating agencies nationwide. Mayor Frizzell said Monday this feature has since been disabled.
Still, approximately 9 people spoke in opposition to flock cameras Monday, citing potential violations of fourth amendment rights, flock cameras being disproportionately deployed in marginalized communities.
“Public safety should not come at the expense of privacy, due process, or equal treatment,” said public commenter Elaina King.
Another resident, Steven DeBois, who works in IT, shared that if the City of Lynnwood is doing business with a third party, they do not own the data that’s being collected…the third party does, who can then use that data for whatever they want, contract or not.”
Quinn Van Order, Lynnwood resident, added he is struck with the message “All Are Welcome” whenever he enters the City of Lynnwood but he doesn’t feel “particularly welcome knowing we’re operating a warrantless, dragnet, surveillance network that holds a record of everyone who has been in the city regardless of if they’ve committed a crime or not.”
Author: Kienan Briscoe
2 Responses
So it is okay for Lynnwood to spy on their citizens and those that visit, but not okay for others. Spying is spying..!
Don’t forget…Lynnwood has told you that they are a safe and welcoming city. Just stay out of the parks. Believe and submit.