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Capitola Police | License plate readers

The City Council authorized a 24-month lease of ten Flock Safety license plate readers on March 28, 2024, on a 4-1 vote, in an amount not to exceed $68,350. The motion made execution conditional on the City Attorney first writing council direction on third-party data access into the agreement, and we have not seen the executed agreement.

At a glance

Approval
Authorized 4-1 on 2024-03-28, conditioned on the City Attorney incorporating council direction [1]
Cameras
Ten, on the authorized master services agreement [1]
Amount
Not to exceed $68,350 ($36,350 at signing and annual recurring at $32,000) [1]
Term
A 24-month master services agreement [1]
Council direction on sharing
That the policy and agreement be amended so third parties are limited from accessing Capitola data without the Police Department's permission, and that staff and the City Attorney obtain vendor clarification on data-sharing and data-retention practices [1]
Cameras, as reported
Ten in Capitola, reported by Santa Cruz Local in September 2025 [2]
Current posture, as reported
Lookout Santa Cruz reported on January 22, 2026 that Capitola is one of two cities in the county with an active Flock Safety contract [3]
Published usage and privacy policy
we could not find one on the city or department websites in this sweep
Retention
not stated in the minutes we fetched, and the executed agreement was not in the records we fetched [1]
Agencies with access to the data
no sharing list appears in the records we fetched

How it happened

  1. Decision

    Council authorizes ten cameras, 4-1, with conditions

    The council authorized "the City Manager to execute a 24-month Master Services Agreement for the lease of 10 Automated License Plate Reader cameras from Flock Group, Inc. (Flock) in an amount not to exceed $68,350," once the City Attorney had written council direction on third-party access into the agreement. [1]

  2. Coverage

    Lookout reports the contract renewed automatically

    Lookout Santa Cruz's August 10, 2026 story links its April report headlined "Capitola automatically renews contract with Flock; anti-surveillance organizers see ‘long road ahead’" and describes "the nearly 50 cameras still active in Capitola and Watsonville," as the organizing group put it. [4]

What the record establishes

The council’s minutes for March 28, 2024 record item B, “Automated License Plate Reader Cameras Recommended Action: Authorize the City Manager to execute a 24-month Master Services Agreement for the lease of 10 Automated License Plate Reader cameras from Flock Group, Inc. (Flock) in an amount not to exceed $68,350 ($36,350 at signing and annual recurring at $32,000). Police Chief Dally presented the staff report.” The council “requested that the Flock policy and agreement be amended to ensure that third parties are limited from accessing Capitola data without the Police Department’s permission and requested that staff and the City Attorney work with Flock to obtain clarification on their data-sharing and data retention practices.” The motion was “to authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement once the City Attorney has incorporated City Council direction into the proposed agreement,” moved by Vice Mayor Brooks and seconded by Council Member Morgan, “Voting Aye: Council Members Clarke, Morgan, Vice Mayor Brooks, Mayor Brown Voting Nay: Council Member Pedersen.”[1]

What the reporting adds

Santa Cruz Local reported in September 2025 that “Santa Cruz city has eight and Capitola 10” cameras.[2] Lookout Santa Cruz reported on January 22, 2026 that “Only two cities in Santa Cruz County, Capitola and Watsonville, have active contracts with Flock Safety now that the Santa Cruz City Council voted to end its contract.”[3]

What it does not establish

The minutes record the direction the council gave; the executed agreement, and whether the City Attorney wrote that direction into it, were not in the records we fetched. Neither was the vendor’s answer on data-sharing and retention. We could not find a posted license plate reader usage and privacy policy on the city or department websites in this sweep, so the retention period, the sharing list and the audit practice are unanswered from a record here.

Questions

How many license plate readers did Capitola approve?
Ten. The council authorized a 24-month master services agreement for the lease of ten Flock Group cameras in an amount not to exceed $68,350, made up of $36,350 at signing and $32,000 annual recurring. [1]
What conditions did the council attach?
The minutes record that the council "requested that the Flock policy and agreement be amended to ensure that third parties are limited from accessing Capitola data without the Police Department’s permission and requested that staff and the City Attorney work with Flock to obtain clarification on their data-sharing and data retention practices." The motion authorized execution only once the City Attorney had incorporated that direction. [1]
Are the cameras still running?
Lookout Santa Cruz reported on January 22, 2026 that "Only two cities in Santa Cruz County, Capitola and Watsonville, have active contracts with Flock Safety now that the Santa Cruz City Council voted to end its contract." We have not read a city record covering the period since the 2024 authorization. [3]
How long is the data kept?
Not stated in the minutes we fetched. The executed agreement and any department policy were not in the records we fetched, so we cannot answer this from a record. [1]

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 Santa Cruz County.

What we have documented in Santa Cruz 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.
    Capitola City Council, minutes of March 28, 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed · archived copy
  2. 2.
    Santa Cruz Local, "As a new state bill pushes back against license plate cameras, Watsonville looks to add more" (read through the Wayback capture of 2025-10-13) · News · · accessed · archived copy
  3. 3.
    Lookout Santa Cruz, "Capitola, Watsonville intend to keep Flock cameras" · News · · accessed · archived copy
  4. 4.
    Lookout Santa Cruz, "After Santa Cruz banned Flock cameras, activists push to expand fight against license plate readers," August 10, 2026 · News · · accessed · archived copy

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