Early this morning/Wednesday morning, the Berkeley City Council deferred voting on expanding its contract with Flock Safety.
Flock Safety provides surveillance infrastructure to cities, like security cameras, drones, and investigative software.
The city’s contract with Flock Safety is set to expire this July. The Berkeley Police Department requested a proposal for a two-year, two-million dollar renewal which seeks to install 16 more cameras in the city, as well as acquire three drones.
Privacy watchdogs have raised concerns about federal agencies being able to access the camera data -- a potential violation of state law -- and using it for targeted surveillance of immigrants and other vulnerable groups.
Over the last few months, many Bay Area cities and counties have been re-examining their contracts with Flock Safety, in light of the company's record of sharing data with federal agencies, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In the last three months, the city councils of Santa Cruz, Mountain View, and Los Altos Hills terminated their respective contracts with Flock Safety., The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors also voted to adopt a new surveillance use policy that prohibits the county Sheriff's Office from contracting with Flock Safety as a vendor for the cameras.
However, in December, the Oakland City Council voted to approve their Police Department's proposal to expand its Flock surveillance network. And, last week, the Richmond City Council also extended its contract with Flock Safety after a close 4-3 vote for similar reasons as in Oakland.
Berkeley City Council will make a final decision on the status of the cameras at a special meeting, set for June 2nd.
