The Antioch City Council voted Tuesday to approve a 49-month, sole-source agreement with Axon Enterprise for automated license plate readers, additional police dash cameras and an artificial intelligence-powered translation tool.
The council approved the agreement in a 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Monica Wilson absent. The motion was amended to require an annual report to the City Council once the new system is implemented.
According to Lt. Mike Mellone, Antioch is currently using two other ALPR systems, Flock and Motorola vigilant – some of the vigilant cameras are offline and not working.
“This proposal replaces and consolidates both fixed systems into one Axon system while expanding our fixed coverage,” explained Mellone.
With the approval, the council agreed to spend $661,687.54 for a 49-month term beginning October 2026. This includes:
- 55 fixed automated license plate recognition (ALPR) locations using Axon Outpost,
- 6 additional Axon Fleet 3 in-car video and mobile ALPR systems
- 120 Axon AI Assistant licenses for the Police Department
According to Mallone, the department want to make sure the fleet and officers are using the same system have the same capabilities after its expanded.
Meanwhile, the AI assistance licenses will work through officers’ existing body-worn cameras.
Mallone shared officers could use two-way translation in more than 50 languages. The department said the technology is intended to support Antioch’s language access plan and its obligations under its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice – however, it is not intended to replace qualified interpreters. This feature could be particularly useful when a bilingual officer or outside translation service is unavailable.
APD Results From Existing ALPR System
Mallone told the council that vehicles are central with a large amount of the crime within the City of Antioch that police investigate – noting 75% of crimes committed each year involve motor vehicles which is consistent locally.
Giving conserviative figures, since August of last year, ALPR technology has helped locate at least 42 stolen vehicles, with 23 of those cases resulting in arrests. Police also documented at least 19 “significant investigative assists”.
He then highlighted several cases where the technology was used.
- Fatal traffic collision, an ALPR-equipped police vehicle captured the suspect vehicle’s license plate shortly before the collision. Investigators determined no other nearby camera had captured the plate, and police said the information ultimately helped identify and apprehend the responsible person.
- Shooting at Sycamore Square, investigators obtained a suspect vehicle’s license plate from surveillance footage and used ALPR technology to locate the vehicle. That investigation resulted in two arrests and the recovery of a firearm.
He added that auto theft in Antioch is down 44% since the city expanded its ALPR network, although the department did not establish that the reduction was caused by ALPR technology.
Data Sharing/Security/Governance
Mallone told the council that the value of the technology does not eliminate privacy concerns that the public has and the system has to be controlled, auditable and used for legitimate law enforcement purposes.
Under the Antioch Police Department’s existing policy for ALPR and operating rules:
- searches must be tied to a police case and have a specific investigative reason.
- Searches are logged and subject to audit
- a license plate reader alert has to be verified before any enforcement action is taken based solely on that alert.
He shared the Axon vehicle intelligent architecture is also different from the model that we have currently with our two existing systems. Axon’s governance materials have sharing off by default and that Antioch would have to establish a specific sharing relationship with another agency.
“It’s a one-to-one relation,” said Mallone. “It’s not an opt in to a network which is how the current system operates If somebody wanted to share data with Antioch, it would require a very specific one-to-one action on both sides to initiate that sharing.”
He said to share, both agencies would have to then accept the request which is visible, logged, auditable and revokable.
Mayor Ron Bernal asked about the timeline for implementation which Mellone shared it could take up to two-years to get everything installed and implemented.
He also told the mayor by removing Flock, which they are paying $99k per year, the new contract with Axon would be $2,500 more a year with Axon but with more cameras. The community will also still be able to view data through their portal like they do now on the Antioch Police website.
Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker was happy to hear there were more dash cameras coming to the city, but wanted to know if Antioch Police was moving away from Flock cameras.
“That is this plan,” responded Mallone. “We would like to move away from having two different systems and live in one system. One of the things we like about the Axon system is we own our own data, we are not putting it out into the cloud and sharing with a network with other agencies. We like the opt in policies. We like that there is no backdoor federal sharing.”
He also confirmed with the council Axon is already compliance with Senate Bill 1030 – a license plate reader data bill.
“I am happy to hear we are moving away from Flock systems,” said Torres-Walker. “They are not as secure.”
Mallone said Antioch Police have not seen the level of concern as other agencies around Flock because of their retention of data is 30-days, a transparency website, prohibited outside agencies from querying their system or giving them ambiguous reasons, they need an actual criminal investigation—including referencing an actual police case number (not out of state or federal).
He said the biggest difference is with Flock, they have to opt in to a network of sharing, but with Axon, its by request and reciprocated.
Torres-Walker also added she was excited to see the AI translation available for all of the Antioch Police Department officers – noting an experience during National Night Out that she was able to communicate with a community member through an officer.
After several public comments raising concern for privacy and tracking members of the community, Mallone said there were legitimate concerns and questions.
“I just want to be clear about this so that the public knows just kind of about this technology because I don’t think anybody in this room wants to have their movements tracked with specificity. I don’t think we want to live in that type of society. I know I certainly don’t,” said Mallone. “As far as this technology is concerned, it does not track people. It tracks vehicle detection. It doesn’t track driver identity. It does not maintain a live location feed on a person. Only an authorized investigator can review when and where a specific license plate was captured within the retention period. And that search must have a legitimate purpose and it’s logged, audited, and tracked. A lot of cities that have had problems with this technology, They’re using ambiguous search reasons or they’re listing no reason at all. Antioch since the beginning uh with our flock deployment has required a very specific case investigative reason and a case number. We reject uh requests or inquiries that are ambiguous.
And as far as mass surveillance is concerned, the system records a plate image, a vehicle content image and visible vehicle characteristics and the time and location of a detection. Historical searches can only can be useful precisely because they show where a vehicle was observed.”
Torres-Walker said she understood the community concern around hyper surveillance and AI assistance.
“My position is I want to get flock out of Antioch,” said Torres-Walker. “And if moving forward with this Axon system is going to do that with potential reviews along the way and some guard rails to make sure that we are not violating people’s civil liberties that the license plate reader data is only is simply being used in a case of investigation and not monitored on a daily basis. Then I could I could support that. And my main position right now is I really want to see flock eliminated. And the community also wants have concerns around safety while and it’s also balancing against the concerns around privacy and mass surveillance.”
Torres-Walker also asked about reporting out the data to the council or identifying red flags.
Mallone said the community would be aware immediately because they are doing it now on their website portal—ALPR portal.
Torres-Walker asked for the justification for a sole source contract.
He explained they were moving towards a unified platform and already using Axon bodyworn cameras, its digital evidence platform. He said it was cutting down on multiple systems.
“We fought for dash camera systems and language access and I support those elements in this agreement for sure while also having concerns still around monitoring,” said Torres-Walker.
Councilmember Louie Rocha called the sole source justification as explained “attractive” and moved to approve the contract.
The item was approved in a 4-0 vote with an annual report will come back to the city council — Monica Wilson was absent.
In response to a question by Mayor Bernal about how quickly Antioch will move away from Flock, Mallone said they will provide an implementation plan on the removal of Flock from the city – noting Flock’s contract runs out in 12-months.
Mallone said the removal of Flock cameras will be made a priority while also replacing the vigilant cameras which are not working.
Previous
- Aug 24, 2026 – Antioch Looks to Add 55 Fixed ALPR Cameras
- March 19, 2026 – Split Vote: Richmond Agrees to Extend Flock Contract
- Feb 27, 2026 – El Cerrito Police Issue Statement on Flock License Plate Reading System
- Dec 11, 2025 – Richmond Police Department Community Update: Flock ALPR System
- Nov. 2025 – Antioch Gets Update on Public Safety Cameras
- Aug 2025 – Antioch Police Set to Upgrade Camera Technology
- March 13, 2025 – Brentwood Agrees to Add 32 Flock License Plate Reader Cameras
