# Newport considers purchase of 6 Flock Safety license plate readers
# WCPO 9 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPwhaBpGTkA

Concerns for neighbors Wednesday night
about automatic license plate readers in
Newport.
I trust our police. I don't trust Flock.
There's voluminous information available
that Flock shouldn't be trusted and
can't be.
This comes as Newport police are mulling
the possibility of buying six Flock
safety cameras after piloting the
technology across the city over the last
several months.
We started at 17 and throughout this
process we narrowed down now to just the
six that we
if we if the city commission agreed on
it depending on our public input, we had
six that we were going to keep.
One of the main concerns mentioned, how
that data is shared with federal
agencies.
In Mountain View, California, Flock
enabled a nationwide setting without
police knowledge on which federal
agencies access local data, they
terminated their contract.
The Carrie McCormick with Flock Safety
says for most cities and agencies that
hasn't been the case.
2025 numbers, about 30 canceled their
contracts.
We're on 925 either renewed or came on
with company for the first time.
So, I asked Flock officials myself about
how Newport data could be shared with
federal agencies.
Back in May, multiple media outlets
reported that the FBI was looking to
gain national access to automatic
license plate reader data. I just wanted
to follow up and ask, has there been any
conversations between Flock and federal
agencies about that possibility and what
sort of safeguards are currently in
place for how the data can be used by
federal agencies?
Yes, so I we got a media team on our
Flock media relations.
So, I reached out to their media team
with that same question and they said in
part, quote, "We're not going to
speculate on prospective deals, but it's
worth noting that we already work with
several federal agencies, all of whom
are subject to the same obligations,
constraints, and transparency mechanisms
that apply to every other Flock
customer."
And at that meeting here tonight,
Newport police also provided an
eight-page document guiding how they
would use that technology and what it
could be used for.
Most policies will have a a clear use of
what you are to use those license plate
readers for,
um some limitations,
uh the data retention periods, access
restrictions, public transparency, there
are audit requirements, and uh
you know, other constitutional rights
that we have to follow with those
policies.
The next step now
What's the next event?
Yeah, what's the next event?
Is there one with the commission?
Yeah.
So, those things will be scheduled and
advertised and once once we uh have
recommendations.
In Newport, I'm Luca McDonald, WCPO 9
News.