Concord
Concord Police had license plate readers mounted on patrol cars since 2008 — Flock’s 2022 citywide network wasn’t the department’s first brush with the technology, just its biggest. This is what’s documented so far: the contract itself, and a resident who caught Flock’s own representative misstating company policy to the Council, in writing, the same night it happened.
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Concord PD already had license plate readers, mounted on patrol cars
Before the 2022 Flock contract, Concord’s own staff report says the Concord Police Department has a history of utilizing ALPR technology dating back to 2008, with systems mounted on five patrol vehicles at the time of the 2022 contract. The department also had a formal written ALPR policy in effect by January 2016 — six years before Flock.
We still don’t have the original acquisition date or vendor for the pre-Flock patrol-car system: Concord’s own online meeting archive has no records at all before some point after 2008 (a direct site search for 2007–2009 turns up nothing), and no news coverage or grant record from that period turned up in a search either. Just the city’s own acknowledgment that it existed, and this 2016 policy as the earliest document we can actually point to.
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City Council unanimously approves a 4-year, $789,187.50 Flock contract
Lieutenant Kevin Halm presented the staff report for a 24-month Services Agreement with Flock Safety for the lease and installation of approximately 65 Flock License Plate Reader cameras, with an option to renew for one additional 24-month term — a total not-to-exceed cost of $789,187.50 over four years.
Per the council’s own minutes, Hope Johnson spoke in opposition to the ALPR System, raising the need for a written data-use policy. Council discussed it anyway, and the motion — moved by Councilmember Hoffmeister, seconded by Councilmember McGallian — passed by unanimous vote.
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A resident catches Flock's own rep misstating company policy — in writing, to the whole Council
Hope Johnson, the Concord resident who’d spoken against the contract the night before, emailed every councilmember directly: Flock Safety misrepresented its policy on responding to third party subpoenas at the meeting — the company’s representative had told the Council Flock doesn’t disclose camera data in response to subpoenas, but Johnson quoted Flock’s own Terms of Service directly back at them: Flock “may access, use, preserve and/or disclose the Footage to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or third parties, if legally required to do so.”
This is exactly the “what Flock told the city, what the record shows” gap this project tracks — caught same-day, by a resident, not a journalist or a FOIA request.
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First public installation update: 65 sites identified, about half the cameras up
A year-end staff update included in the Feb 7, 2023 Council packet reported on the Flock Citywide LPR Camera Program: 65 viable camera sites had been identified citywide, with roughly half installed and the rest expected up over the next few months — the first public confirmation that physical installation was actually underway, five months after the contract vote.
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Police department cites four solved cases and a declining-theft chart in an ALPR results briefing
An “Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Impacts & Metrics” slide presented to Council on April 22, 2025 credited Flock data with helping solve four specific cases from the prior few months: a January 17, 2025 road-rage shooting where FLOCK LPR leads were essential in identifying and locating the suspect vehicle; a March 5, 2025 armed home invasion with an infant present, where suspect vehicles were confirmed via FLOCK and entered into the Stolen Vehicle System before both were recovered by CHP Oakland and SFPD; and a homicide at 1500 Monument Boulevard where Flock ALPR data was used to identify the suspect vehicle in a case the department says was made without any eyewitness account.
The presentation also included a year-over-year chart: Flock-flagged stolen/felony-vehicle reads fell from 2,133 (2023) to 1,941 (2024) to 1,248 (2025, partial year as of this April presentation), tracked alongside a parallel drop in reported motor vehicle thefts — 810, 650, and 492 over the same three years. The chart doesn’t establish that Flock caused the decline; it’s presented here as what the department itself showed Council, not as independently verified causation.
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If you live in or near Concord and have an update, a correction, or context worth adding — a FOIA response, council document, email, public statement, or just something you noticed or heard about that isn't reflected here — send it to contact@nosurveillancepledge.com with dates and a link or scan where you can, and we'll add it with a source.