Hoodline reported that Redwood City will not choose a new company to run its license plate reader cameras until 2027. The decision had been expected this fall. City Manager Patrick Heisinger told residents at a community forum at the Fair Oaks Community Center that a vendor recommendation won't come until the new year.
The delay means the city has effectively decided not to renew its current contract with Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based company whose cameras scan plates across the city. Sources disagree on when that contract expires, and the city hasn't publicly resolved the discrepancy.
What changes for drivers?
Hoodline describes only Redwood City's own contract with Flock Safety. Once that agreement ends, the city has not decided whether it will keep using plate readers or what terms a future contract might carry.
What does not change:
- The reporting does not address cameras run by other agencies, businesses or HOAs.
- The city has not announced a new vendor, so nothing about a replacement system is settled.
To see where plate readers are mapped near you, check the camera map.
Why did the city delay its decision?
The delay follows months of public unease over how the city's camera data has been accessed and shared. The timeline slipped as scrutiny of the technology intensified, the reporting says.
- An audit of more than 10 million records going back to April 2023 found 99 unauthorized queries, according to The Almanac.
- Ninety-six of those searches came from Flock miscategorizing outside agencies as California law enforcement.
- Three were run by Flock itself for demonstrations without the police department's permission.
Police Chief Dan Mulholland has said there is no evidence that out-of-state or federal agencies flagged in the audit actually received images from the city's cameras, per NBC Bay Area. That same station reported a separate audit found some out-of-state and federal agencies could search the network because of permission errors. The chief blamed Flock for granting that access without city approval.
The city says it opted out of Flock's statewide lookup tool in February 2026 and limited sharing to agencies within the nine Bay Area counties. It also says ALPR data is automatically purged after 30 days unless it is kept as evidence or for another legitimate law-enforcement purpose. For background on how these systems log and share data, read how plate readers work.
What happens next?
The city is weighing seven proposals from a competitive process for three years of equipment and support for its 25 plate readers, with an option to extend for two years. Staff have not recommended a vendor to the City Council.
The city plans to host another community meeting in early 2027 before bringing a final recommendation to the council. The city's response to a San Mateo County civil grand jury report did not decide whether Redwood City keeps using plate readers at all.