The Falcon license plate-reading camera in an undated photo provided by Flock.
Courtesy of Flock
The Josephine County Sheriff’s Office has ended its contract for 10 automated license plate readers after residents raised privacy concerns and some of the cameras were vandalized.
Sheriff Dave Daniel said the cameras have helped law enforcement investigate crimes, but opposition to the technology has grown in Josephine County. The cameras collect license plate numbers and other information about vehicles that pass them, allowing police to search the data later.
Daniel said the Flock cameras have been deactivated, although some remain in place and it is unclear when the company will remove them.
“While the technology has been beneficial in solving crime and overall public safety,” Daniel said in a statement, “it is clear much of Josephine County is not ready or willing to accept the use of ALPR technology.”
Concerns about automated license plate readers have grown nationwide as the technology has become more widespread. Police have used the systems to identify stolen vehicles and investigate crimes. But the cameras also create searchable records of where vehicles have been seen.
There have also been cases of law enforcement officers misusing Flock data. 404 Media reported in June that more than a dozen officers around the country had been accused of using the system to stalk or monitor people for personal reasons.
Josephine County is not the first Southern Oregon jurisdiction to reconsider its use of the technology.
The Talent City Council suspended its Flock cameras in December amid concerns about how the data could be used and shared. The Medford Police Department, meanwhile, has defended its use of the cameras, pointing to restrictions on when the data can be accessed.
Privacy advocates reported last year that Medford police had cooperated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including by running a license plate check for the federal agency in 2021.
Oregon lawmakers placed new restrictions on automated license plate readers this year. The law limits how law enforcement agencies can use the systems and generally requires data not connected to an ongoing criminal investigation or court proceeding to be deleted within 30 days.
On Thursday, Flock announced that it is changing its recommended default retention period from 30 days to seven days. The company said more than 90% of searches that do not include a full license plate are conducted within a week.
Roman Battaglia is a reporter with JPR. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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