The Oklahoma City Council voted Tuesday to extend the city's contract with an automated license plate reader (ALPR) company, despite opposition from some residents.
Five council members voted in favor, and three voted against it. Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher was absent.
Oklahoma City has maintained an active contract with ALPR vendor Flock Safety since 2023. The devices capture license plate numbers and other vehicle details on roads across the city. Local officials say they help law enforcement find cars related to missing persons and auto theft cases.
"I understand the concerns, but I also have been one that got to see the actual benefit of something like that taking place," said Ward 4 Councilman Todd Stone during the discussion.
Stone said his vote in favor of the renewal stems from personal experience. When his car was stolen, camera technology helped to recover it. He said the incident prompted him to reflect on how ALPR systems could be used to quickly return vehicles to owners in such cases.
In a presentation to council members and meeting attendees, Oklahoma City Police Chief Ron Bacy said the technology has helped recover 1,280 vehicles, locate 210 missing people and aided in 60 murder cases in Oklahoma City.
"These actual cases involve real neighbors, real friends, real family members," Bacy said. "As you look at the statistics, those aren't numbers. Those are people impacted."
But in recent months, some residents have grown increasingly wary of the technology. They fear the mass collection of data allows government actors to track residents.
An Oklahoma City officer was reprimanded for using the Flock database for "personal use" across five months in 2024 and 2025. The officer received a 3-day suspension.
Dozens of residents attended Tuesday's meeting to express their opposition to the contract's renewal. They came from an array of backgrounds, with speakers referencing their ties to organizations like LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma and Young Americans for Liberty, a conservative-llibertarian organization.
Ward 1 resident Jarrett Freeman called for a return to more analog policing,
"Detective work, community leads, witnesses. That's how it was done. That's how it should still be done," Freeman said. "If the cameras are why the cases got solved or get solved now, tell me, how was every one of them solved before 2023?"
Freeman filed a records request in March for information about transparency reporting and discipline standards related to Flock, which spurred interest from some council members when he presented it in the spring. The response he received said that OKCPD does not publish internal use or transparency reports on Flock. During Tuesday's meeting, Bacy said that to supplement the automated audit system, his department does a manual audit for possible improper searches every 30 days.
Ahead of the vote, the department announced changes to the ways it is using Flock. The renewal was granted with the addition of an amendment that gives Oklahoma City, rather than Flock, the sole power to share data with federal agencies. In addition, Bacy said his department is reducing the data retention period from 30 to 7 days and removing its data from a nationwide sharing platform that allowed it to be viewed by participating agencies across the country.
"Despite how it helps us keep this community safe, we've listened to our community and we've turned off our automatic national sharing," Bacy said. "What we will do is we can turn it on for significant incidents on a case-by-case basis."
Opponents acknowledged that the updates were a step they appreciated. But it still wasn't enough.
"For me personally, it does not change my mind about us continuing this contract with Flock, and I think it should end," Ward 7 Councilman Camal Pennington said to a chorus of applause.
Ward 6 Councilwoman Jo Beth Hamon pointed to Flock in particular as a company she perceives as a bad actor. She referenced cases in other cities, like Evanston, Illinois, where the company put its devices back up after the city asked for them to be taken down.
"Particularly with Flock, I think they're responding with some of these new updates to some of the public pressure, but it deeply concerns me that this was not much of a concern to them before," Hamon said.
Aside from Stone, none of the other council members who voted in favor of the contract — Mayor David Holt, Ward 1 Councilman Bradley Carter, Ward 3 Councilwoman Katrina Avers and Ward 5 Councilman Matthew Hinkle — offered comments about their decision during the meeting.
In April, Holt said he believes the use of ALPRs in a public place doesn't infringe on residents' privacy.
"I would also point out that most of this information is gathered in public, and there is no expectation of privacy in public," Holt said. "I think that for the most part, that's how our residents feel, and they appreciate the opportunity that it provides for public safety."
The contract will be up for renewal again next year.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
