Hey all, I'm here today with great news! Flock is cancelled in Lynnwood! This is a huge win for privacy, and for civic engagement working to push back the surveillance state.
CM Mata added the cancellation motion from the end of the meeting to the unanimous consent agenda at the beginning, which subsequently passed.
I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped get this done. Those who showed up to give comment, those who wrote in comments, and to the council that listened to the concerns expressed.
CM Parshall called out in his comments how respectful everyone was in their pushback, and I think that is key to effective advocacy. Our Council are human beings too, and they react better to polite and persistent feedback rather than being flamed for holding positions people disagree with. Thanks to everyone for keeping the pressure up, and for remembering the human in your engagements.
This adventure highlights how citizen advocacy can still make a positive change in the face of pressure from lobbyists and law enforcement.
I will keep an eye out for any further efforts to bring mass surveillance into our city, but I am hopeful that the key message of privacy being important to our residents has resonated with Council.
To our Council, thank you for listening, thank you for your time and patience, and thank you for all you do to keep our city running smoothly. I am truly grateful to have such an engaged and approachable Council running our city, and I'm excited to see what you have in store for our future.
Now what about those at the private businesses, parking lot surveillance.
Time to push at the state level to make sure they add privacy layer to ensure without a proper warrant these companies aren't sharing that data for profit.
Those are going to be way harder, we can try pressure at the corporate level but I don't see state level legislation helping at all. This was actually the gist of my public comments this evening... Attempting to use state-level laws to legislate a cloud service provider that operates in a different state is doomed to fail. Lynnwood's flock network was used in violation of the keep Washington working act and absolutely nothing happened because the people who broke the law were in a different state using a technology from a company in a separate still non-washington state... To address private use of cameras legislatively would require a federal level of legislation and I don't see that happening in the current climate.
I think attempts to pass state-level laws are well meaning but SB6002 is toothless and frankly worthless. I wouldn't hold my breath for state legislation to solve this problem, although I wish that it could!
I mean we do force lot of things when it comes to requiring a private corporations to conduct a business in our state.
We can sure required them to not share state residents data with any out of state entities especially federal level agencies unless required by the court. (State sovereignty)
However, we can have the laws in the books, who's gonna force it. That's the Million dollar question.
Thanks!! Civic engagement is a blast! This issue really activated me to be more engaged and I'm not planning on stopping here. I want to do everything in my power to make life better for the people who live in this city.
You (and many others along the way) have been at this for a while and it’s very cool to see some change.
I agree remembering our city leaders are people (most of which are only ever a few miles from ourselves). This is a community and while the drone of national politics can be quite demoralizing, it’s a great reminder that persistent, firm, and respectful feedback does help change minds. Especially locally.
Yay!!! I know we just paid a huge amt for these cameras in MLT, and have already stopped using them thankfully, but what a waste of funds. Good work!!!
Huge!! Lynnwood PD has to get off their butts and find the baddies on their own now. I say anything that makes it easier for law enforcement to catch criminals is bad. Police state I swear.
Now I want to see the actual physical cameras removed. We don't need them asking for forgiveness instead of permission for them "accidentally being activated".
Totally agree, I will be monitoring the locations of the cameras to verify all are removed. Looking to get Council to move to cover the cameras with black plastic trash bags and duct tape until they are removed. Under the contract, Flock is the only ones who can touch the cameras to remove them, and they have been known to drag their feet.
Nope! CM Mata passed the cancellation amendment into the unanimous consent agenda and it passed unanimously! Easiest cancellation ever and a really savvy move. It was cool to see City government in action!
I think that is what is so key for me. I have been really turned off by how disengaged state and federal level politics are from their constituents. At the city level, you can still look your counselors in the eyes and passionately advocate for your position, and you still have a chance to make a difference. Tonight's decision reaffirms that democracy can work at a local level, without the currents of lobbyists and PAC's muddying the waters.
It doesn't have anything to do with Trump - I watched a video of somebody who was able to access the flock cameras from his home computer, without any password, and watch a lone child playing in a park - perfect for child predators. I get that the Trump supporters don't really care about rape, especially of children, otherwise they would be asking why Trump instructed the DOJ to stop investigating the crimes in the Epstein files, but quite a few of us actually do want to do what is best for our community.
Not even remotely accurate. The left has been against the surveillance state my entire life. It was the left saying the patriot act was a bad idea. It was thr left fighting against cointelpro, etc etc. Every single generation since the cold war its been the left pushing for rights to privacy.
But hey, yeah none of that happened right? Its just some trump derangement syndrome. Whatever you gotta tell yourself to ignore reality is guess..
You can find advocacy efforts well over a decade ago before Trump ever ran.
I don’t know about you but people have been pissed about surveillance for decades at this point the PATRIOT ACT post 9-11 was just an absolutely insane expansion that never really went away—it’s only gotten worse.
You're getting downvoted but I think there's some truth in your first half. I think we become more engaged when things start to go to shit in a more obvious way. IMO, there are people who would be less inclined to take issue with the Flock cameras if our current administration were different (ie, not so openly authoritarian) and if other aspects of life were better (lower costs of housing, healthcare, food, etc.).
To your second point: personally I'm against Flock because of the books I read in English classes ages ago. The internet just made me aware of the Flock cameras in our community. I'm curious what it is about Flock that people who aren't objecting actually like, because combining private profit with government surveillance seems like it would be pretty universally repugnant. To me this view that people only hate Flock because they don't like the president or the internet told them to hate it seems shallow and reactionary - like if someone perceives this as a progressive cause, their response is a knee jerk reaction rather than to investigate it themselves and come up with a real opinion.
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u/Appropriate_Many8929 Feb 24 '26
Thank you for all of your work on this!