Reno Will Not Renew Flock Camera Contract

Reno will not renew its contract with Flock Safety for automated license-plate-reader cameras and will also end its drone-response subscription with Motorola/BRINC. City officials say a replacement technology contract will be presented to the City Council on Oct. 21, with proposed safeguards including city control of data, privacy protections and automatic audit trails of searches and users. The decision follows community and council concerns that the cameras enable intrusive or warrantless tracking and could be misused, though city officials have maintained that technology remains important to public safety. Flock’s existing agreement is set to run until mid-March, and Reno has used the company’s cameras to record vehicle plates and related information for police searches.