Sedro-Woolley to turn back on its Flock cameras

SEDRO-WOOLLEY - The Sedro-Woolley City Council voted Wednesday night to turn back on the city's Flock Safety Camera System.

Sedro-Woolley Police Chief Dan McIlraith said he expects to have the automated license plate reader cameras turned back on by June 1.

"I'm looking forward to turning Flock back on and using this as it was intended and increasing the solvability of crimes," he said. "Again, these are not video surveillance cameras. They are just still photos of license plates and we do have to confirm those hits before we take any action … We won't use the system until we have a reason to do so."

Flock cameras are touted as being able to aid law enforcement in identifying vehicles associated with suspects, witnesses or victims of crimes.

The cameras record vehicle data, including license plate information as well as vehicle descriptors such as type, make and color along with other identifiers.

"This is just another tool we can use to solve crimes that otherwise may go unsolved," McIlraith said.

Sedro-Woolley's seven Flock cameras went live in March 2025 and were disabled in June 2025 after a public records request was filed for images taken by the cameras.

A new state law limits images to authorized law enforcement personnel for valid law enforcement purposes.

Federal agencies are prohibited from accessing Flock camera data, including for immigration enforcement.

"I know there have been big brother concerns about Flock cameras, but I trust our city police and I thank our legislators who fixed a lot of the significant problems," City Councilmember Paul Cocke said.

"And now it can only be shared on certain crimes with law enforcement, which is really what they were intended for … I support turning them back on."

Though Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the Flock legislation into law on March 30, McIlraith stated in the days following the signing that he wanted "wanted to make sure we have everything in place before we turn them on."

That includes further training for officers on the new law.

McIlraith assured the City Council that all cameras are located where allowable and are away from schools, religious facilities and hospitals.

He said he was comfortable with their placement.

"They (the Legislature) listened to some of our law enforcement concerns as far as being able to use these for gross misdemeanor and felonies and stolen vehicles and such, but also put the necessary restrictions in order to alleviate some issues that popped up," McIlraith said.

Sedro-Woolley signed a two-year contract with Flock for $44,548, however, that price has been lowered.

"I was able to negotiate with Flock and since it has been turned off for so long, to get a prorated discount on the time we lost," McIlraith said. "So this year's bill went down from $22,500 to about $7,100. That's what our bill is this year."

The city of Stanwood turned off its 14 Flock cameras in May 2025 after a public records request was filed for images made by its cameras.

It turned its cameras back on in April after Ferguson signed the new legislation into law.

Mount Vernon did not turn off its cameras.

The cities of Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood are asking a state appeals court to reverse a Skagit County Superior Court ruling that prior to the new law being signed images taken by the cameras were subject to the state Public Records act.

The man who requested the images is suing the two cities for not producing the records.

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