Yakima County Sheriff | Flock Safety license plate readers
Nineteen camera systems bought sole-source in one 2024 summer with grant money, kept through the 2026 statute, and papered with a policy that tracks the law clause by clause.
At a glance
- The buildout
- 10 September 2024: the board awards a sole-source purchase to Flock Safety and signs two agreements the same day — 11 systems ($34,250 a year plus $650 installation, "Fully Funded Under a WAPTA Grant") and 8 systems ($28,700 year one, $24,000 year two, automatic renewals, "ARPA ProAct Team Grant") [1]
- The money
- No general-fund dollar appears in the fiscal-impact lines: a state auto-theft grant, federal pandemic-recovery funds (including $22,800 from Commissioner Linde's allocated ARPA distribution in July 2024), and a further sole-source notice that November [1] [2]
- The policy
- Policy 426 (revised July 2026): 21-day retention default; no immigration enforcement, no out-of-state reproductive-health investigations, no collection at schools, health facilities, worship, courts, or food banks; annual audits; audit trail kept two years; no sale of data [3]
- Transparency
- The Sheriff publishes its own transparency pages and links a Flock-hosted portal for the county's system [4]
- State law
- RCW 10.130 (Chapter 239, Laws of 2026), which the policy cites by section throughout; registration with the Attorney General is required before operating [5]
How it happened
- Decision
Eight cameras enter the ARPA budget
An amendment to the county's pandemic-recovery agreement with the Sheriff's Office adds the purchase and annual cost of 8 Flock cameras, funded by $22,800 from a commissioner's allocated ARPA distribution. [2]
- Decision
The sole-source notice
Resolution 213-2024 authorizes advertising the intent to buy monitoring service and equipment from Flock Safety without competition. [6]
- Decision
The award and both agreements
Resolution 242-2024 awards the sole-source purchase; Agreements 336-2024 (11 systems, state auto-theft grant) and 337-2024 (8 systems, ARPA ProAct grant) are signed the same day. [1]
- Decision
A further sole-source notice
Resolution 308-2024 authorizes advertising another sole-source Flock purchase. [7]
- Context
The statute-shaped policy
Policy 426's published revision carries the 2026 law's retention, prohibited-use, audit and disclosure requirements, citing the session law by section. [3]
Sole-sourced in a summer
The network arrived through the consent calendar in four steps over five months, and every funding line points away from the county’s own treasury: a commissioner’s pandemic-recovery allocation, a state auto-theft grant, a federal ProAct grant. A sole-source purchase means the county documented why no other vendor would do, and the board’s resolutions carry that justification; the two September agreements, signed the same day, put nineteen camera systems on county roads.
Kept and papered
Washington’s 2026 law made county plate readers a decision rather than a default. Pierce and Spokane switched theirs off. Yakima, like Snohomish, kept its cameras and published a policy that follows the statute clause by clause, down to the food banks on the prohibited-collection list, and stood up a transparency page linking the vendor-hosted portal. The gap the record leaves is exactly the one the statute will close in December 2027: where the cameras are.
What we do not know
- The camera locations schedule, which RCW 10.130's annual public reports will require from 1 December 2027.
- The registration and certification filed with the Attorney General before operating.
- Whether the November 2024 sole-source notice produced a third agreement, and the network's current camera count.
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 Yakima County.
What we have documented in Yakima 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. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 10 September 2024 (Resolution 242-2024; Agreements 336-2024 and 337-2024) · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 16 July 2024 (ARPA Amendment · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3. Yakima County Sheriff's Office Policy 426, Automated License Plate Readers (Lexipol, revision 27 July 2026) · Primary document · accessed
- 4. Yakima County Sheriff's Office, Flock Transparency page · Primary document · accessed
- 5. Revised Code of Washington 10.130, Washington State Legislature · Law · accessed
- 6. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 13 August 2024 (Resolution 213-2024) · Meeting record · · accessed
- 7. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 18 November 2024 (Resolution 308-2024) · Meeting record · · accessed
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