FLORENCE — The Florence City Council voted 3-2 Monday, Feb. 2, to keep six Flock Safety license-plate recognition cameras in use in the city.
The vote came after law enforcement leaders in Eugene, Springfield and Lane County made separate announcements in December that they would not move forward with Flock Safety cameras despite having entered into agreements with the company.
In Florence, residents spoke against using the technology at Monday’s meeting, as well as at a Jan. 5 public forum. Of more than 35 written comments submitted to the council ahead of Monday’s meeting, only four were in favor of continuing with Flock Safety.
Florence Chief of Police John Pitcher said only Oregon law enforcement agencies could access data collected by the cameras in Florence, but many in attendance expressed concerns about how other law enforcement agencies — including federal agencies — might use that access.
Mayor Rob Ward broke a tie when four city councilors split their votes during a roll call.
City Councilor Robert Carp, who voted to keep the cameras on, said he saw value in “enhanced safety” for the community.
“We have checks and balances in place for this safety tool. That is what it is, simply a safety tool,” Carp said. “People can spin this in any direction they care to. That only divides and hurts our community.”
Florence’s first Flock Safety camera was installed in April 2024 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 126. Last year, a grant from the Three Rivers Foundation funded five additional cameras and two years of Flock Safety services. The city says it has six cameras installed.
- JAIME ADAME/Lookout Eugene-Springfield
Good enough reason to avoid Florence. And Bravo Mr. Carp, spoken like someone who’s sure he’s right. But aren’t you “spinning” it as a safety tool in the first place? The only thing you can objectively say about it, is that it’s a surveillance tool. You don’t have to “spin” anything, it’s a surveillance tool. Which means it’s an invasion of innocent people’s privacy at minimum. And once the privacy violation has occurred, the data can be used either for “safety” or “unsafety” depending on who has the data and what their intent is. The only safe data is data that was never collected.
Thank you for this notice … which warns shoppers from other areas about entering Florence to do business. It would be interesting if Florence City Council surveyed folks from out of town about whether this would influence their preferred shopping locations. Does anyone have a list of the locations for all of these surveillance cameras? Thank you!
Found the 6 locations on the Florence City website:
Hwy 101 & 2nd Street – facing northbound traffic
Hwy 101 & 25th Street – facing northbound traffic
Hwys 101 & 126 – facing southbound traffic
Hwy 101 & Heceta Beach Road – facing southbound traffic
Hwy 126 & Spruce Street – westbound
Hwy 126 & Spruce Street – northbound