EPD moving forward with ALPR cameras after legislature passes bill

Published 12:15 pm Wednesday, March 25, 2026

The Enumclaw Police Department will be moving forward with a partnership with an automatic license plate reader company after Washington state legislators passed a bill that codifies the use and restrictions of the cameras into law.

Lawmakers approved engrossed substitute Senate Bill 6002 and sent it to Gov. Bob Ferguson on March 12, the end of the session; the EPD was waiting on whether the bill passed before finalizing a contract with Flock Safety.

“With the completed legislation and guidelines, the Enumclaw Police Department will be moving forward with the installation of Flock ALPR cameras in the near future,” EPD Chief Tim Floyd said. “Even with the additional limitations the recent legislation puts on law enforcement use of ALPR systems, the benefits of having this system in our crime fighting toolbox will assist us in our efforts to enhance the safety of our community.”

ALPRs are what they say on the tin – cameras that automatically take photos of license plates that pass them; if the ALPR takes a photo of a car that matches a description, or has a partial or full license plate match, of a car suspected of being involved in a crime, a “hit” is sent out to the relevant police departments. The “hit” can be sent locally for low-level crimes or across a wider area for more severe cases.

Before the bill passed, automatic license plate reader (ALPR) use in Washington was mostly governed via contracts between municipalities and other governments and ALPR companies.

The new bill mostly codifies standard contract language into law, but it also limits what crimes law enforcement can use ALPRs to investigate, how long law enforcement departments can retain data, and requires departments to make annual audit reports available to the public and submit them to the legislature.

How departments can use ALPRs to make traffic stops seems relatively unchanged: officers can’t use a “hit” as probable cause for a traffic stop, but instead have to develop “independent reasonable suspicion” for the stop.

Alternatively, officers would have to immediately confirm visually that the “hit” was correct and also confirm by other means that the license plate is in another system, be it the state Department of Licensing or another law enforcement database, local or federal.

“This has always been the case essentially. Even with a stolen hit on a plate, an officer would be required to visually confirm the plate and then re-confirm the stolen hit before taking enforcement action,” Floyd said. “This was standard language in most ALPR department policies, including ours, prior to the legislation. The legislation just memorializes it.”

However, the bill only allows law enforcement to use ALPRs to investigate gross misdemeanors and felonies, and not misdemeanors.

Additionally, most Flock Safety contracts allow departments to retain collected data for up to 30 days before it’s “hard deleted” from the system, meaning it can’t be recovered by any means. This does not apply to vehicles already flagged in the system.

The bill limits data retention to 21 days, which is less than the 30 days allowed by a typical Flock Safety contract.

“I am pleased with the 21-day retention considering the legislation initially called for a retention period of only 72 hours,

Floyd said. “Ideally, the retention period would have stayed at 30 days or even longer as police investigations often take weeks or longer to work through, and crimes are often not reported in a timely manner. But in the end, we can live with the 21-day retention parameter.”

And while Flock contracts required law enforcement departments to have the ability to audit their ALPR use – which includes tracking which officer was searching for what plates – annual reports will be required to be made available to the public and submitted to the appropriate legislative committee by December 2027.

Audit reports must include the number of hits that resulted in traffic stops, arrests, and prosecutions; the number of stolen vehicles and recovered license plates; the total number of license plate reader reads and searches that yielded results; the number of times data was shared with or accessed by another government entity; and the location of cameras, among other requirements.

EPD reports would be required to be put “conspicuously” on the city’s website.

The city of Enumclaw approved an ALPR policy last July — this is not a contract with Flock Safety — and approved funds for the cameras in the 2026 budget.

Tt’s expected to cost $30,000 for eight cameras (two positioned at SR 167 and SR 164 each, and four on SR 410, and installation) during the first the first year, and then $24,000 every year after.

Floyd said he expects the cameras to be operational by the end of the summer, “if not sooner.”

“Due to the legislation, we are reconfiguring our camera locations to meet the requirements within the bill,” he added. “This takes some planning time, permit reviews and the like.”

DATA SHARING CONCERNS

While Enumclaw is moving forward with its Flock Safety contract, other cities have recently paused or canceled their agreements with the company.

Lynwood canceled its contract last February after a University of Washington report found that out-of-state agencies access its collected data “seemingly for the purposes of immigration enforcement,” the Everett Herald reported, adding that the Lynwood Police Department’s system was only accessible to out-of-state agencies for nine days.

In that time, more than 100,000 searches were made, and at least 16 directly related to immigration enforcement.

The ability for law enforcement to share its data with outside agencies can be turned on and off, and was a feature that some departments were not aware of; Kent and Auburn also changed how it shared with outside agencies after the UW report was published, but continue to partner with Flock Safety.

Redmond officials announced earlier this month that it was suspending its contract with Flock Safety due to privacy concerns.

Floyd said that the EPD will allow only in-state agencies to access its database.