Rob Fuentes
Role at the time: Candidate for Fresno City Council, District 1
Statement summary
Fresno council candidate Rob Fuentes said the city should not renew its contract with Flock, saying he is deeply concerned by a system that creates a surveillance record of every innocent person who drives through Fresno's neighborhoods.
“The city should not renew its contract with Flock Our law enforcement certainly need effective tools to combat thefts, robberies, and other serious crimes. But as a civil rights attorney, I am deeply concerned with a system that creates a surveillance record of every single innocent person who drives through our neighborhoods. Building safe neighborhoods and respecting our constitutional rights is not a false choice: We can and must do both.”
The Fresno Bee asked both Fresno City Council District 1 candidates whether the city should renew its Flock camera contract, which expires in 2026.
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Fuentes said Fresno should not renew its Flock contract and objected to a system that records every innocent driver in the city's neighborhoods. He supports other crime-fighting tools, but his objection is to the tracking network itself, and ending the contract would remove the city's cameras.