From: Jim Duffy < >
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2026 12:14 PM
To: Kevin Patterson <[email protected]>
Subject: 2/10 City Council Agenda Item 8.E. TOPICS FOR FUTURE COMMUNITY-POLICE
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Dear City Council:
I respectfully suggest that you ask your PSAC to discuss the Surveillance Technologies currently being used by Cotati Police Department, especially Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) and specifically ALPRs related to Flock Safety.
Locally, ALPRs and Flock Safety have been hot topics of discussion in Petaluma and Rohnert Park. There are many advantages and disadvantages to all these surveillance technologies that are rapidly coming online. Community Based Civilian Oversight Entities are the perfect place for these discussions which can be long and complex and require folks to really educate themselves to the benefits and dangers. Once again,, Kudos to your Council for establishing such a body for your city.
Ultimately, I believe you should implement a Surveillance Technology and Community Safety Ordinance similar to the one implemented in Sebastopol (https://sebastopol.municipal.codes/SMC/8.80). In addition to Sebastopol's version, other versions of these ordinances are available from the ACLU of Northern California (https://www.aclunc.org/publications/fighting-local-surveillance-toolkit) or from NYU School of Law's Policing Project's Authorized Policing Technology Act (https://www.policingproject.org/apt-act) and Authorized Databases and Police Technology (ADAPT) Act (https://www.policingproject.org/adapt-act).
PUBLIC COMMENT
Several California cities and law enforcement agencies have faced lawsuits or legal threats regarding the use of Flock Safety Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), primarily focused on illegal data sharing with federal agencies (such as ICE) and violation of state privacy laws. Flock does not indemnify Cotati against these potential lawsuits. In the Bay Area alone, Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley, and Marin County have all been sued for their use of Flock ALPRs. The City of Santa Cruz, seeing the writing on the wall, recently wisely terminated their contract with Flock Safety.
Thank you for considering my words!
Respectfully,
Jim Duffy
Rohnert Park
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Jim Duffy
NACOLE Certified Practitioner of Oversight (www.nacole.org) he, him, his