_{Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office have six automated license plate reader cameras from Flock Safety at several intersections in the community including Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard. | Photo by Heather Polen}

Three days after the local use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras came up at a Crescent City Council meeting, Del Norte County Employees Association Vice President Eva Lopez voiced a concern she said many staff members have.

“Does ICE have access to these cameras,” she asked Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott on Thursday, “or will they?”

Lopez wasn’t alone in questioning the sheriff at the second of two budget workshops. Though his colleagues approved the DNSO’s contract with Flock Safety for six cameras more than a year ago, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard called for a renewed discussion of their use. 

Howard cited feedback from his constituents and their concern that ALPRs are an infringement on their Constitutional rights.

“I’m not sure the Board deliberated as much as they should (have) at the time,” he said of the May 27, 2025 meeting, which he did not attend. “I don’t know what kind of detail you could go into at this time, but I’m very curious about the system and if any of these constituent concerns are truly a reality.”

Howard’s colleagues approved a contract with Flock Safety for six cameras at a not to exceed cost of $18,000 per year. The contract’s total cost was $36,000. County supervisors approved the contract without discussion since it was on the May 27, 2025 consent agenda.

The DNSO has placed its Flock cameras at six intersections Scott sees as exit points from the more populated areas of Crescent City. One of those is Northcrest Drive at Washington Boulevard, just outside city limits.

On Thursday, it was Del Norte County Employees Association President Amy Lafreniere who introduced the topic, asking what line item in the DNSO’s 2026-27 budget the Flock cameras were listed under.

According to Nancy McClaflin, the DNSO’s budget and logistics manager, funding for the Flock contract came from a California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement Team, or Cal-MMET grant.

McClaflin corrected District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson, who was present at the May 27, 2025 meeting, when he said the ALPR cameras the sheriff’s office uses are mounted on vehicles.

“They are stationary,” McClaflin said. “And not all of them in the community are ours. We do partner with other people in the community. We did develop very specific guidelines for the cameras in accordance with state law and those are being followed.”

There is a total of $63,412 in the DNSO’s Cal-MMET budget with $18,000 going toward research investigation services, Auditor-Controller Clint Schaad told supervisors.

The $18,000 that’s earmarked for research investigation services is the funding source paying for the Flock cameras, McClaflin said. The Cal-MMET grant also partially funds the K9 program, county vehicle fuel and minor equipment.

Scott told supervisors that his office “started looking at Flock” a few years ago, but he was on the fence about whether he wanted to use ALPR cameras. 

“But when I started my career, one of the biggest problems in a rural county is if you have a school shooting or the kidnapping of a young child, or the Camillia Randall homicide case, there are certain points of the county that law enforcement locks down to lock down the community and that’s well known to everyone,” he said. “You put it out on the radio and every cop car goes to those intersections to lock down the county. But, God forbid, if you don’t have enough law enforcement to get to those intersections to lock them down, this kidnapper would slip right by. And with two deputies, and maybe a city cop on duty most of the time, the odds of capturing someone kidnapping a child are, honestly, pretty slim.”

The Camillia Randall homicide case concerns the death of an 18-year-old Longview, Washington woman in 1994 whose body was found in Stout Grove. About six years later, a Del Norte County Superior Court jury convicted Robert Allen Wigley of murder, rape, sodomy and infliction of torture. 

According to an article published by the University of California, Los Angeles’s Center for the Study of Women, Wigley managed the Super 8 Motel that Randall visited the night of Oct. 26, 1994 to use the restroom.

On Thursday, Scott also referred to “25 to 35 Fentanyl deaths in our county for the last so many years,” as the reason for using the ALPR cameras from Flock.

Howard asked the sheriff to bring back “data and statistics” about the kidnapping cases and drug apprehensions the Flock cameras have been instrumental in addressing.

“You anecdotally brought into the conversation drug apprehensions, narcotics off the street, etc., relating that back to the use of this AI-backed system would be incredibly important to the justification,” Howard said. “If we’re snagging kidnappers, if we’re removing Fentanyl off the streets, I think that would go a long way to quelling some of the outrage that I hear specifically around this issue.”

On Monday, Crescent City residents Cate Classen and Jake Borja voiced their concerns to the City Council about the Flock camera at Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard. Classen asked who was behind those cameras and what they had planned to do with the information collected.

Borja started the Facebook group, DeFlock Del Norte County, which currently has 105 members. On Thursday, he began circulating a change.org petition to remove Flock Safety and other ALPR cameras from Del Norte County.

In his petition, Borja states that the Board of Supervisors approved the contract with Flock Safety “without any public comments or hearings.” At the May 27, 2025 meeting, Board of Supervisors Chair Joey Borges did allow public comment on the consent agenda as a whole, but not on the Flock Safety contract specifically.

Borja said he’s concerned about the impact ALPR cameras will have on the community and cites California Civil Code 1798.90.55, which states agencies must ensure public oversight and accountability when implementing surveillance technologies.

“I urge the Del Norte County authorities to take immediate action by removing Flock Safety and similar ALPR technologies until public hearings can be held and proper regulatory and security measures put in place,” Borja wrote. “We need to prioritize our community’s voice and protect our rights from potential overreach.”

Meanwhile, in a Facebook post on Friday, District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey mentioned State Senate Bill 1013, the Automated License Plate Recognition Data Accountability Act, which passed the Senate and is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. According to Starkey’s Facebook post, it’s scheduled for a hearing next Thursday.

If approved, SB 1013 would limit retention of ALPR information to 30 days unless it’s tied to an active investigation or “other authorized purpose.” Law enforcement searches would need to be connected to a valid case or task force. The bill would place stronger restrictions on automatic sharing and access to ALPR databases. Privacy and training would be required for those accessing ALPR information and additional auditing and accountability requirements would be established.

Starkey urged those who are concerned about ALPRs to reach out to their state representatives. 

“Technology changes quickly and sometimes our laws and policies have to catch up,” she said.

On Friday, Starkey told Redwood Voice that she felt the budget workshop wasn’t the right venue to hash out the community’s concerns regarding ALPR, but it’s a worthwhile discussion. 

“If we as a community decide this is not something we want, that the benefits don’t outweigh the cons, then we have to make a decision together,” she said. “That’s really where I stand. Perhaps a policy locally is we don’t share information with any outside agency without a warrant, similar to what they would need to search a home… short answer, I think we need to revisit it.”

In response to Lopez’s question about whether the DNSO’s Flock camera information will be shared with ICE, Scott said any law enforcement agency can access Flock.

“I’m sure that ICE can access Flock any time they want to,” he said. “You have to learn the process and how Flock works. They’re specific to reading license plates, that’s kind of the idea, so if I just answer with a blanket, ‘Yes they do!’ I think it’s important to say that.”

The sheriff said he’d be willing to host a Town Hall meeting to address the community’s concerns.