Oakland – Dueling rallies in Oakland highlighted divisions over continuing and expanding the city’s Flock Safety surveillance camera network Tuesday evening.
What we know:
The meeting of the Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee was postponed for three weeks due to a lack of quorum, but both sides still gathered outside City Hall to make their positions clear. Supporters and critics alike said they want what’s best for the people of Oakland.
Supporters held signs reading “Safety First” and “Flock Saves Lives,” saying the technology helps solve crimes in a city struggling with police understaffing.
Stacy Stewart, a business owner, said she’s lost multiple family members to gun violence since 1969.
“Last year, May 18, 2024, my husband was murdered while I was with him,” she said. “We need cameras. All of these murders that I have suffered through you guys, are all cold cases.”
Brenda Grisham, another business owner, said the cameras are essential for protecting businesses and solving crimes.
“On Friday, one of the businesses in my building was robbed, in broad daylight, so for me as a business owner, security is priority one,” she said. “The Flock cameras and the expansion of the Flock cameras, the live feeds, will help businesses, the live feeds will help with murder cases, the live feeds will be an asset to public safety.”
The other side:
A smaller group of demonstrators holding orange signs voiced opposition to what they call mass surveillance. They carried signs that read “Stop Mass Surveillance” and “ICE Gets the Data.”
“They are not just license plate readers, that’s a lie, that’s a stone cold lie,” said Cat Brooks, founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project. “It is also a lie that OPD can keep that data safe.”
Oakland currently has about 300 Flock cameras that capture license plates and the backs of vehicles. The company said clearance rates for crimes have gone up 11% since the cameras were installed in 2024, and about one-third of homicides are solved using Flock data. The information is deleted after 30 days.
Dig deeper:
“The city of Oakland owns 100% of its data, Flock does not sell data, we do not share data without agency or community permission,” said Trevor Chandler, Flock Safety’s director of public affairs. “This is not mass surveillance. This is precision policing, instead of looking at every person as a suspect, what we’re allowing people to do is look for the suspect.”
Public Safety Committee Chair Charlene Wang said councilmembers are considering a two-year extension of the contract with Flock, valued at just over $2 million. The cameras are currently managed by the CHP. The proposal would also allow business improvement districts to integrate their existing Flock cameras with Oakland Police.
“It is very important for me to safeguard the data. At the same time, we have very deep understaffing,” Wang said. “Even as crime is coming down, we still have high rates of violence and property crime and technology is a really important tool for a police force to address the crime.”
Wang said she plans to vote in favor of the contract extension and is working to ensure that guardrails are in place to prevent any data from being leaked or accidentally shared with ICE.
The next Public Safety Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18.