Mill Valley has suspended its Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) and live-feed cameras, saying the company changed its terms of use midway through the city's contract. The cameras have been off since Sept. 9, the city said in an Oct. 21 statement.
Why it matters: Mill Valley is the latest Bay Area city to pull back from Flock over who controls the data. The city says it wants the city, not the vendor, to control data, settings and sharing.
What the city says
"Because the revised terms did not provide the enforceable protections the City requires, we suspended use of the Flock system," the statement says.
The city says it already limited the program: no facial recognition, data kept 72 hours for live-feed cameras and seven days for plate readers, regular access audits, Flock's statewide lookup turned off, and sharing only with a few California agencies that signed a data-sharing agreement.
Vice Mayor Caroline Joachim told the Mill Valley Briefing that the city's stored camera data has passed its retention period and been purged.
Flock's side
A Flock spokesperson pointed the Briefing to an Aug. 21 company blog post about updated online terms, which says the changes do not affect customers with a standalone signed agreement. The post doesn't mention Mill Valley.
What's next
Mill Valley says it is working with Marin County and neighboring cities on a shared approach, including other vendors. Staff plan to return to the City Council in February 2027, and any plan to turn cameras back on will get public review.
Related: Marin supervisor seeks reviews of Flock and other surveillance tools and Flock cuts 18% of staff amid camera backlash.
Sources: City of Mill Valley statement, Mill Valley Briefing, Patch.