POCATELLO, Idaho, Aug. 16 (Our Idaho Times) — The Pocatello City Council is taking another look at the city’s automated license plate reader program after residents raised concerns about privacy, data sharing and whether the cameras are worth the cost.
At an Aug. 13 work session, Pocatello police officials and a Flock Safety representative explained how the cameras work, who can access the data and how long records are kept. The council did not make a final decision on the program. Members agreed that more discussion was needed, including a review of the department’s policies, contract and results.
The meeting did not include formal public comment.
What are Flock cameras?
Flock cameras are automated license plate readers, often called ALPRs. They photograph passing vehicles and record information such as a license plate, the vehicle’s appearance and the time and location of the image.
Police use that information to look for vehicles connected to investigations. Capt. Zac Bartschi said the system is meant to provide investigative leads and probable cause. He said it does not replace an officer’s investigation or judgment.
Bartschi told the council that Pocatello’s system does not use facial recognition, identify drivers, track cellphones, issue speeding or red-light citations, or record conversations.
Police have pointed to stolen-vehicle, hit-and-run and other investigations in which the cameras provided leads. But officials did not present a complete list of cases or independently verified data showing how often the system produces arrests, charges or convictions.
How did Pocatello get the system?
Pocatello police evaluated several vendors in 2024, including Neuology, Motorola, Rekor and Flock Safety, according to information presented by the department. The city later approved a Flock contract.
Public accounts differ on when that approval occurred. Some reports place the council vote in May 2025, while another places the contract’s first appearance before the council in 2024. Councilman Hayden Paulsen was reported as the only member to oppose the contract.
The Idaho State Journal reported that the department spent $102,000 in December 2024 to purchase 34 readers and deployed them in early 2025. Other reports have described the system as having 36 cameras. The records publicly described during the discussion did not resolve the difference.
How long is the data kept?
Police officials told the council that camera reads are automatically deleted after 30 days unless they are tied to evidence or an official case report. Records connected to a case can be kept indefinitely, according to the department’s presentation.
Flock announced Aug. 13 that it would shorten its standard retention period to seven days, the Idaho State Journal reported. It was not clear whether that change had taken effect in Pocatello or when the city’s settings would change.
The retention period matters because most images captured by the system are not connected to a crime. A shorter period would reduce the amount of historical travel data available for searches, while longer retention could give investigators more time to locate a vehicle’s movements.
Who can search the information?
Police Chief Roger Schei said Pocatello recently disabled nationwide search access. Regional law-enforcement partners may use the system under department rules, while national access is limited to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI, according to his presentation.
Other agencies must request access, provide a reason and identify a case number, police said. Flock representative Sheerica Ware said access is limited to trained personnel who meet Criminal Justice Information Services standards, the security requirements used for criminal-justice information.
Ware also said Pocatello owns its data. She said Flock uses anonymized, aggregated information to improve its system and does not own the city’s camera records. Schei said law-enforcement agencies do not sell the data.
Schei also told the council that Pocatello does not share camera data for immigration-enforcement purposes and has conducted no searches solely for that purpose. He said requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement generally involve a criminal matter. Those statements describe the department’s practices; the supplied information did not include an independent audit of search records.
Why are critics concerned?
Critics, including people involved with the group Deflock Idaho, have questioned whether the cameras amount to mass surveillance and whether data can be shared beyond Pocatello’s control. Brian McKellar, an organizer identified in opposition coverage, alleged that the system violates Idaho law. No court ruling, legal complaint or official legal opinion establishing that claim was presented in the materials described for the work session.
Paulsen has also criticized the program. Before the meeting, he said he viewed the cameras as an invasion of privacy and called for the contract to be examined, according to the Idaho State Journal.
The concerns center on more than the photographs themselves. Critics also question the size of the camera network, the rules for regional sharing, the length of data retention and whether residents can determine when their vehicle information has been searched.
What happens next?
The council plans to hold another work session on the cameras, policies or contract. The exact date had not been set in the reports available for this article, and it was not clear whether the follow-up meeting would include public comment.
Key questions for the council include the program’s full cost, contract term, renewal and cancellation provisions; the final number of cameras; the retention setting now in use; and the number and results of investigations in which the system was used.
For now, the Aug. 13 meeting left the program in place while council members seek more information about its benefits, limits and oversight.
