On Tuesday, the El Cerrito city council voted not to renew its contract with FLOCK, which means the cameras will be turned off on June 7.
The council was asked by the police department to renew its Flock Safety contract for license plate readers at a cost of $315k over 3-years or a 1-year, $105k contract.
The council voted not to support the renewal of FLOCK contract in a 3-2 vote with Quinto and Wysinger dissenting.
According to Chief Paul Keith, he told the council Tuesday that about 12% of the community they arrest come from the community of El Cerrito while 88% are not saying in order to arrest people who come from outside their community, they need tools.
Keith provided a 30-minute presentation highlighting benefits, real-life incidents on the impact of FLOCK, and said without it, officers will do less crime solving and less work.
After public comments, the council took up the issue.
Mayor Gabe Quinto read several letters from businesses, including a letter from the police union urging support of FLOCK.
“These are some of our top businesses in El Cerrito. So, I wanted residents to know our businesses have dealt with and endorsed through the years, especially during this difficult time of COVID and with the rising rates of crime,” said Quinto. “I am reminded of a neighbor that was killed at his restaurant. It was a restaurant in the Mira Vista neighborhood in Richmond, he lived down the street from me, he was killed by someone who held-up the restaurant and that ruined his family. When I moved back to El Cerrito, there was a killing at the Red Onion Restaurant, this was a place my parents would taken me when I was growing up. If we had those cameras, the perpetrators would have been arrested.”
Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Saltzman thanked all the speakers for offering public comments.
“I’ve been considering this decision very carefully for the past several weeks. I completely understand FLOCK has helped the police department solve crime and I understand the deep community concern about how FLOCK data can be used against our residents,” explained Saltzman. “The decision has actually become easier in the past few days. It became easier tonight, because going into the meeting I thought in the agenda, I thought it was to approve the new contract which we were presented a couple weeks ago… it was very surprising then tonight, actually we want to go back to the old contract, it appears to me flock was not negotiating in a good faith.”
Saltzman said that didn’t make her feel good about going into a one to three year contract with FLOCK with a company not negotiating in good faith.
“I am more concerned tonight than I am tonight and with the budget impact, which I know are real,” said Saltzman. “It isn’t a huge cost to the City of El Cerrito, but we are talking about saving $1,000 here and saving $10,000 here. This is a big cost over 3-years.”
Saltzman also noted today, the police department is fully staffed where in the past that was not the case – challenging the data.
“Ultimately my biggest concern is the federal government could access the data,” said Saltzman. “The law has been changing constantly, we are losing more rights every week. Trump and the Supreme Court could change the law and require FLOCK turnover the data tomorrow.”
Saltzman said she would be voting no on any extension of the FLOCK contract.
Councilmember Lisa Motoyama said she had absolutely confidence in the police chief and the police department, however, the problem with FLOCK is they had shown through multiple experiences that they do not fix something until it goes wrong. She also said data collected in El Cerrito will be used in the future to police everyone in different ways.
“I think we need to help our local businesses be safe, I think if the chief can come back with some solutions for that,” said Motoyama. “I know its $100,000 but is there something we can do that is not FLOCK to protect our local businesses and residents.”
She said there are other things they could do, such as getting other cameras not going out into the cloud.
“I am not with comfortable with a company, even in 2026, was sued by our Attorney General for breach that they released data, through a city, to give that information somehow to ICE,” explained Motoyama. “I don’t think our data is safe this way, we can’t control once it goes to the cloud that belongs to FLOCK, we don’t have the control over it like we think we do. I don’t think we can do this contract, I do not trust FLOCK. I trust our police, I trust our community, I do not trust FLOCK.”
Quinto said tonight they were talking about something that will help in deterring crime.
“We need to also think about the victims of crime. And the victims of crime, here in El Cerrito, has been for the most part, Asian Americans. Asian Americans have been killed in the Bay Area and throughout this country, as well as Latinos and African Americans, so it is communities of color who are the victims of crime here,” said Quinto. “When I think about so many of our small businesses who have put their heart and soul, their savings in opening up a small business here, and they have to go through with organized crime, that is not acceptable.”
He added, “we have people moving to El Cerrito because they have been victims of crime and they know that El Cerrito is a safe city and we do what it takes to keep a safe city safe. And these are homeowners from Oakland and San Francisco who have had enough of being victims of crime whether its small businesses or their home or their cars or their themselves… this is not acceptable.”
Quinto said he didn’t want to see crime happen to residents or small businesses. He noted all crimes are lower because a majority of cities, more than 70% have invested in licenses plate readers.
“I stand by as a mayor, we just need to do the right thing and stay away from politics,” said Quinto adding he would vote to renew the FLOCK contract. “I am going to stand by my police chief, the police department and businesses that call El Cerrito home.”
Councilmember Carolyn Wysinger called it a conflicting issue for her because the issue was not the cameras, but rather FLOCK itself. She reaffirmed comments by Saltzman regarding the “good faith” negotiations but said she would support renewal.
With her lived experience, she said she came into this differently noting, “I have not just been the victim of violent crime, I grew up with killers, I grew up with drug dealers, I’ve been to the trap house a number of times. I know what happens, I shouldn’t have said that on mic,” said Wysinger while providing several more examples said she in good conscious could not let the cameras be turned off. “
Councilmember William Ktsanes offered no comments.
The council voted not to support the renewal of FLOCK contract in a 3-2 vote with Quinto and Wysinger dissenting.
To watch the chiefs presentation and council meeting, click here
- Agenda: Click Here
Background Data per Staff Report/Presentation
To address concerns about sharing and access, the ECPD posted redacted network and organizational audit logs online to the ECPD Public Records Archive. The LPR coordinator is now responsible for auditing all system usage at the conclusion of each month and authoring a report to the Chief of Police.
Police Provided Context
The El Cerrito LPR system has contributed to solving serious offenses in El Cerrito, including the following examples:
- September 2023, Armed Robbery – The armed suspect approached the victim on Richmond St., fired a bullet into the air, and stole the victim’s Rolex watch. The suspect fled in a Dodge Charger. Detectives used the LPR system to link the suspect with other armed robberies in the region. The detectives connected the vehicle to a suspect, and he is currently in custody out of state, awaiting extradition to California.
- December 2023, Murder – The LPR system provided valuable information about the movement of a homicide suspect, residing in El Cerrito, both before and after he murdered the victim in Capitola, CA. The suspect was convicted of murder.
- March 2024, Burglary – Three suspects, operating in two teams, burglarized a tobacco store in El Cerrito. Two of the suspects used a truck to ram the front of the store. The third suspect acted as a lookout in another vehicle. Patrol officers, aided by the California Highway Patrol, apprehended two of the suspects during their response to the call. Detectives used LPR cameras during the follow-up investigation to identify and apprehend the lookout.
- May 2024, Felony Hit and Run – The LPR system helped investigators confirm the identity of a hit-and-run driver after she ran over a pedestrian at the intersection of Cutting Blvd. and San Pablo Ave. The driver was charged with felony hit-and-run.
- July 2024, Vehicular Manslaughter, Hit and Run – The system helped investigators identify a suspect vehicle following a fatal hit-and-run collision on San Pablo Ave., near the intersection with Central Ave. Once the vehicle was identified, detectives used the system to locate the vehicle and owner the following day in Concord, CA. After interviewing the owner, detectives identified and apprehended the driver of the vehicle, on the night of the crime. The driver was convicted of vehicular manslaughter.
- February 2025, Armed Home Invasion Robbery – Officers responded to a home invasion robbery, during which two armed suspects woke residents at gunpoint after breaking into their house just before midnight. The following day, patrol officers located video surveillance footage of the suspect’s vehicle and found matching records in the LPR system. Investigators used the LPR system to locate the suspect’s vehicle later that day, in Dixon, CA. Investigators apprehended one of the suspects asleep inside the car.
- December 2025, Robbery – Investigators used LPR footage to match possible suspects with a robbery. During the robbery, one suspect grabbed the victim, stole her phone, and then threw her to the ground, injuring her head. Detectives followed a lead from Berkeley Police that helped them connect the suspects and the suspect’s vehicle to the El Cerrito crime. The suspects are currently wanted for the crime.
- January/February 2026, Burglary Series – Officers and Detectives used the LPR system to identify two separate groups of residential burglary suspects, targeting houses in El Cerrito and neighboring cities. ECPD Detectives apprehended one group of suspects and charged them with residential burglary. Detectives continue to work with neighboring departments to apprehend the other burglary crew.
- March 2026, Auto Burglary Series – Detectives identified a suspect vehicle following vehicle burglaries during the night in El Cerrito. After Richmond Police located and towed the vehicle, detectives recovered property for multiple victims, including a $7,000 East Bay Regional Parks Fire Department portable radio, stolen from the personal vehicle of a firefighter in El Cerrito.
In El Cerrito, the LPR system supports every major criminal investigation. In 2025, El Cerrito experienced a historically significant decline in three serious crime categories. The City experienced the lowest levels of burglary and vehicle theft in 40 years. El Cerrito also experienced the second-lowest level of robbery during the same period.
Compared to the year 2022, the last full year without license plate reading cameras, clearance rates have increased dramatically in the crime categories of robbery, assault, burglary and larceny. A crime is considered “cleared” when the suspect is arrested. The clearances rates, listed in the chart below, represent the percentage of cases cleared by the El Cerrito Police Department in 2022 and 2025. The final column represents the percentage increase in clearances in those categories.
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