Ishii co-authors Berkeley proposal to reject any Flock Safety contract

Adena IshiiMayor of Berkeley, California, co-author of the supplemental agenda material

Condemned

Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii co-authored supplemental material for the City Council's March 24, 2026 agenda that recommends rejecting any renewal, authorization, approval or execution of a contract with Flock Safety. The same material recommends approving amended use policies for drones and fixed cameras and asking the City Manager to look for alternative vendors for the drone program.

“Reject any renewal, authorization, approval, or execution of the Flock Safety contract ... Flock’s violations are numerous.”

Original text

Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Revised Agenda Material for Supplemental #2, Item 26: Public Safety Technology: Surveillance Technology Ordinance and Police Equipment Ordinance Approvals, Policy Updates, and Contract AuthorityPage 1: 'Submitted by' line and summary paragraph; page 5: Contract Authority, recommendation 7

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A close view of a green Flock Safety automated license-plate reader mounted beside a street.
Credit: Bruxton

Where this statement fits

Should Flock-style license-plate surveillance networks exist?

Networked automated license-plate readers record passing vehicles and let agencies search or share travel records across locations. Candidates and officials disagree over whether to prohibit these networks, keep them with legal limits, or defend their use for investigations. This tracker records attributable positions on that choice, including proposals that would affect only public funding or data access.

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Source and context

Original text

Revised Agenda Material for Supplemental #2, Item 26: Public Safety Technology: Surveillance Technology Ordinance and Police Equipment Ordinance Approvals, Policy Updates, and Contract Authority (opens in a new tab)Page 1: 'Submitted by' line and summary paragraph; page 5: Contract Authority, recommendation 7

About this source

Supplemental material filed with the Berkeley City Council for Item 26 on its March 24, 2026 agenda. The cover page names Mayor Ishii and Councilmember Lunaparra as co-authors and Councilmember Tregub as co-sponsor. It recommends rejecting any Flock Safety contract and amending use policies for drones and fixed cameras.

Archived copy (opens in a new tab)

Before the quotation

The city manager's report for Item 26, submitted by Police Chief Jennifer Louis, recommended renewing Berkeley's Flock license-plate-reader contract for two years at up to $330,000 and adding Flock drone, fixed-camera and investigative-software services.

After the quotation

The Berkeley Scanner reported that the March vote never happened because public comment ran out the clock. On May 7, 2026, the council voted 5 to 4 to extend Flock's plate-reader contract for up to 12 months, KQED reported, with Ishii among the four members opposed.

How this statement is classified

Condemned

The label describes this statement's response within the context above.

Why this label?

The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Ishii co-authored material whose table marks the Flock contract as rejected for plate readers, drones, fixed cameras and investigative software, and it lists no replacement vendor for the plate readers. A call to end the Flock contract with no replacement fits Condemned and the Ban position on the remedy ladder. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, which would fit a vendor swap; the material seeks other vendors only for the drone program.

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More from this case

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Jacob Burnett says Flock-style cameras should be done away with, with warrants required if they stay

Jacob Burnett

“The systems themselves can be modified to prevent nearly all abuse and be made more secure by requiring warrants for access or follow through on any data the systems collect and have all data stored on the hardware itself preventing viewing from remote locations, requiring strict login credentials and a connecting warrant number to access. These are common sense changes that if the systems are to be used I feel could correct a lot of abuse or privacy concerns but I also feel the systems should be done away with overall, especially in the realm of predictive crime analytics.”
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The Dispute Index
Title
Ishii co-authors Berkeley proposal to reject any Flock Safety contract
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https://disputeindex.com/events/5021-berkeley-mayor-adena-ishii-co-authored-supplemental-material

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The Dispute Index. "Ishii co-authors Berkeley proposal to reject any Flock Safety contract". First published: 2026-10-07. Last updated: 2026-10-07. https://disputeindex.com/events/5021-berkeley-mayor-adena-ishii-co-authored-supplemental-material