Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office’s automated license plate reader camera from Flock Safety at Northcrest Drive led to questions from the public at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting. | Photo by Heather Polen
Del Norte County’s sheriff says he understands the concerns commenters raised before the Crescent City Council on Monday about an automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera at Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard.
But in a rural area with few safeguards and only three deputies on duty during a shift, having “those eyes out there” to foil a kidnapping or any other crime is worth it, he told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday.
“For now, it’s a three-year safeguard,” Sheriff Garrett Scott said of the six Flock Safety cameras his office purchased in May 2025. “If, God forbid, we do have a kidnapping or something horrific at one of our schools or in the more populated areas, they’re a proven resource.”
The DNSO has placed its Flock cameras at the gateways to the more populated areas of Crescent City in order to monitor its exit routes, Scott said. Describing them as license plate readers, they operate 24/7 and allow law enforcement to hone in on vehicles that match the description of any that may be associated with a recent crime, the sheriff said.
According to Scott, the Flock cameras will allow Del Norte County to stop traffic heading out of town in the event of a kidnapping.
However, during the public comment period before the Crescent City Council, residents Cate Classen and Jake Borja asked for information about why Flock cameras are being installed in the area.
Classen raised the issue on her Facebook page, the Crescent City Cool Factor, urging people to attend Monday’s meeting and speak out.
Borja, who didn’t give his last name at Monday’s meeting, said he created a DeFlock Del Norte County page on Facebook and said he was worried about the cameras’ vulnerabilities and the potential for “spoofing attacks.”
“The reason I came today is because there wasn’t any type of a public meeting about these automated license plate cameras,” he said, citing California Civil Code 1798.90.55. “I find it irresponsible to put technology in place without proper due process. My own opinion on the matter is there should be a moratorium on them — shut them down for the time being until a proper meeting can be established.”
The DNSO was authorized to install its Flock cameras after the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the Atlanta-based company at its meeting on May 27, 2025. The cost for six cameras was not to exceed $18,000 per year, according to the sheriff’s staff report.
The item appeared on the consent agenda and was approved without comment save for a rebuke from frequent meeting attendee Sam Strait who argued that many of the items should have had a robust discussion before approval.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Flock’s automated license plate reader cameras record and track every car that comes into its view and then uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to catalogue its make, model, color, license plate number, bumper stickers and scratches.
That information is uploaded to a national database that “any law enforcement agency with a Flock contract can search,” the ACLU states.
Other companies that produce ALPR cameras include Axon, Vigilant Solutions, a subsidiary of Motorola and Genetec, according to the ACLU.
The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office and Crescent City Police Department currently contracts with Axon for body cameras and dash board cameras.
The ACLU has been advocating for the increase in transparency and accountability for how ALPR cameras are used. That advocacy includes releasing model legislation in February that includes guidelines for regulating the use of ALPR cameras. In April, the ACLU also filed an amicus brief in a Fourth Circuit court of appeals case arguing that using ALPR cameras may be in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In May, the ACLU also stated its support for a ban on ALPRs that was proposed for the federal highway funding bill.
On Tuesday, Scott told Redwood Voice that before he asked the Board of Supervisors to approve the installation of the Flock cameras, he researched what other counties were doing and discovered that Humboldt County had installed some ALPR cameras in its jurisdiction.
“At that time, when I first started, they had nine cameras and they had some success stories,” Scott said of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. “And then I talked to the California Highway Patrol.”
According to Scott, the CHP had planned to install ALPR cameras in Del Norte County. “Obviously, they haven’t installed those yet or we would see them,” the sheriff said. “I know that we didn’t want to place cameras where they were going to. We don’t want to pay for duplicated services. We just saw this major need.”
Despite the success stories Scott referred to, Humboldt County’s use of Flock cameras has stirred controversy. In 2025, an investigation by the Lost Coast Outpost revealed that the HCSO allowed outside law enforcement agencies to conduct “hundreds of thousands of monthly searches” of its ALPR data “without obtaining legally required information for the search.”
As of Wednesday, a change.org petition urging the HCSO to end its contract with Flock Safety and remove ALPR cameras from its jurisdiction has 1,569 verified signatures.
On June 3, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors directed Public Works staff to create a policy that prevents use of ALPR cameras “and other similar technology” on county rights of way, the LoCO’s Isabella Vanderheiden reported.
Humboldt County supervisors also voted to form an ad-hoc committee to look into alternatives to Flock Safety that would give the sheriff’s office greater control over its data.
At Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting, Police Chief Richard Griffin informed Classen and Borja that the ALPR camera they mentioned was outside of city limits. Referring to Flock cameras as an investigative tool, Griffin noted that the concern stems from other agencies’ access to the information they gather. However, he also noted that they were instrumental in rescuing the victim of a recent child abduction in Southern California.
On Wednesday, Griffin told Redwood Voice that in addition to the body cameras and dashboard cameras, Axon automated license plate readers have also been deployed in CCPD vehicles. He said he received City Council approval for that technology about three years ago.
Unlike the Flock ALPR cameras, the data collected by CCPD’s Axon cameras are only used in-house, Griffin said. It’s not plugged into a national database or shared with federal agencies, he said. CCPD is also not able to hold onto the data with its current as long, Griffin said.
“And the officer has to be in the car with the car running for it to work,” the police chief said. “We have recovered several stolen vehicles. We had a person with Alzheimer’s who was a missing and endangered person, we hit on their plate and were able to locate them as well.”
One of those stolen vehicles belonged to an actor with MythBusters and the person with Alzheimer’s was from Southern Oregon, Griffin said.
Griffin said Crescent City had entered into a 90-day memorandum of understanding with Flock Safety System to try their cameras. That MOU was never followed through on and Griffin said he never had access to the company’s database.
Flock reached out again recently, but Griffin said he let the company know he wasn’t interested.
“I know all the current issues people are bringing up, both good and bad, but that didn’t have anything to do with that,” he told Redwood Voice. “There was no real reason other than the budget and what we’re using with Axon, it’s been working great. There have been no issues with it and it’s controlled from in-house as well.”
According to the sheriff, the DNSO has used information gleaned from its ALPR cameras to obtain search warrants and to track other cases, though he couldn’t say exactly how many times those cameras were used.
Scott said he’s implemented a strict policy against misusing the cameras. He also doesn’t plan on adding to the six Flock cameras his office already has. The sheriff said he understands where people are coming from, but “everywhere you go, you’re on camera.”
“If you go to Walmart, you’re on camera, they’re honing in on everything you have. You go through a neighborhood, everybody’s Ring camera is picking you up,” he said. “I do read all the comments on Facebook. Most of the people… they don’t want it because of the Big Brother stuff, but I don’t know how you’re going to stop it. It’s here to stay.”
