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ORWELL INDEX
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Grass Valley Police | Flock license plate readers

Grass Valley's Flock Safety order form covers 25 cameras over five years at $316,550 with 30-day retention. On August 11, 2026 the police department said it would "indefinitely suspend our use of fixed-point ALPR readers within our City limits, exercising our ability to cancel our contract with Flock Safety."

At a glance

Cameras on the order form
25 Falcon [1]
Term
60 months, renewing in 24-month terms [1]
Cost
$62,500 a year; $316,550 contract total [1]
Retention
30 days (order form and Policy 433.5) [1] [2]
Sharing stated in policy
California public agencies only [2]
Status
Suspended indefinitely; contract cancellation invoked, announced 2026-08-11 [4] [3]
Audit finding stated by the department
160 queries from out-of-state or federal/tribal agencies [4]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    Council approves license plate readers

    The department's August 2026 statement says that "in late 2021, the City Council approved the use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology with a 5-0 vote." The order form in the council packet is undated in the text we fetched. [4] [1]

  2. Context

    Policy 433 in the published manual

    Flock data "will not be stored for more than thirty days"; release is limited to California state or local agencies and "does not include out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies." [2]

  3. Debate

    Residents protest the contract at a council meeting

    CBS Sacramento reported that dozens of residents and privacy advocates protested the contract at a May 29 council meeting. [3]

  4. Decision

    Department suspends fixed readers and invokes cancellation

    The department's statement: it "has decided to indefinitely suspend our use of fixed-point ALPR readers within our City limits, exercising our ability to cancel our contract with Flock Safety." It reports an audit finding "160 queries on our network from out-of-state or federal/tribal agencies" and, at the March 2026 peak, "hundreds of thousands of California agency queries" a month against local queries "closer to 1,000 per month." [4] [3]

What the order form says

The order form, an attachment in a City Council packet, is the unsigned form presented to the council; it lists 25 Flock Safety Falcon cameras under a Flock Safety Platform subscription of $62,500 a year, a 60-month initial term, a 24-month renewal term, one-time implementation fees of $4,050, and a contract total of $316,550. It states a retention period of 30 days and says the agreement renews automatically unless either party gives notice of non-renewal at least thirty days before the end of the term.[1]

What the policy says

Policy 433.5 states that “Flock ALPR data will not be stored for more than thirty days and consists of fixed-point cameras located within the city limits of Grass Valley,” and that “The specific locations are not releasable to the public and are official business only.” Policy 433.4 says “Reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using an ALPR.” Policy 433.7 limits release to public agencies, and states that a public agency “does not include out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies (Civil Code § 1798.90.5).”[2]

What the department said

The department’s statement of August 11, 2026 says that “in late 2021, the City Council approved the use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology with a 5-0 vote,” that the system “has evolved to include much more powerful computer-intelligence tools,” and that “In recent audit reviews, we did find that there were 160 queries on our network from out-of-state or federal/tribal agencies,” which the department says were consistent with state law. It says that at the March 2026 peak “hundreds of thousands of California agency queries were being performed against our data (and other data on the network) each month,” against local queries “closer to 1,000 per month,” and that the department “has decided to indefinitely suspend our use of fixed-point ALPR readers within our City limits, exercising our ability to cancel our contract with Flock Safety.”[4]

CBS Sacramento reported the announcement at the council meeting, the chief’s remark that “ALPR issues can certainly be defined as 4th Amendment issues,” and a May 29 meeting at which residents had protested the contract.[3] The council record of the 2021 approval was not in the records we fetched.

Questions

Are Grass Valley's Flock cameras still running?
No, per the department. Its August 11, 2026 statement says it "decided to indefinitely suspend our use of fixed-point ALPR readers within our City limits, exercising our ability to cancel our contract with Flock Safety." [4]
What did the order form cover?
The order form lists 25 Falcon cameras, a 60-month initial term at $62,500 a year, $4,050 in one-time implementation fees, and a $316,550 contract total, with a 30-day retention period. The copy in the council packet is unsigned. [1]
Who could receive the data?
Policy 433.7 limits release to public agencies and says a public agency "does not include out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies." [2]

On the map

The community has mapped 94 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

What we do not know

What you can do

Show up

Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Nevada County.

What we have documented in Nevada County →

Protect yourself

Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.

Surveillance Self-Defense →

Sources

  1. 1.
    Flock Group Inc. order form for Grass Valley PD, council packet attachment · Meeting record · accessed · archived copy
  2. 2.
    Grass Valley Police Department Policy Manual (Lexipol, 2025-12-19), Policy 433, Automated License Plate Readers (the archived copy predates this revision) · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy
  3. 3.
    CBS Sacramento, "Grass Valley police indefinitely suspend Flock license plate cameras" · News · · accessed · archived copy
  4. 4.
    Grass Valley Police Department, "Grass Valley Police Department indefinitely suspends the use of fixed-point ALPR readers within City limits," statement published by YubaNet · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy

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