MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Following continued community objections, the Mountlake Terrace City Council explored potential guardrails Thursday for the safety cameras set to be installed on the city’s main roads.
On June 5, the City Council approved an agreement with Flock Safety by a 5-2 vote to install nine cameras in Mountlake Terrace. Many attendees expressed privacy concerns during public comment before the vote, due to the system’s ability to track license plates.
Flock Safety License Plate Recognition cameras are security cameras used by law enforcement and communities to capture vehicle license plate information. These are designed to assist in crime solving and prevention by identifying vehicles associated with crimes, stolen vehicles or wanted individuals.
After the June vote, community members continued to push back against the decision, spurring the meeting on Thursday.
“We are here tonight because collectively we decided this was an important topic to put back on the agenda this evening,” council member Erin Murray said. “That was driven by those in our community who continued to show up and express their thoughts and feelings about what we were doing as a council.”
During public comments, some Mountlake Terrace residents, including Laura Winkler, expressed that the city council members broke their trust.
“When the council voted,” Winkler said, “five people voted yes and only two voted no, despite what the people of Mount Lake Terrace wanted. So, it was clear that the people were ignored.”
Mountlake Terrace resident Sam Doyle called the council’s relationship with the community damaged.
“I think amends need to be offered before solutions, and they have not been,” Doyle said. “I urge the council to show accountability publicly by acknowledging how, as a body, you failed to listen to us. This would be a start to heal the relationship.”
Many residents expressed concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and how the camera data could be used to track individuals. Mountlake Terrace resident Dale Jeremiah cited a King 5 article that found the Washington State Department of Licensing providing ICE with access to driver’s license and vehicle information.
“ICE could obtain DOL license registration for everyone with a Hispanic surname,” Jeremiah said. “ICE could then use flock cameras to track all of their movements.”
Mountlake Terrace resident Audrey Meyer explained how she works with the Washington Immigrant and Solidarity Network as a first responder to ICE activity. She helps people understand their rights and connects them with lawyers if needed, she said.
“People have been detained nearby in Lynnwood, in Bothell. It’s happening. ICE is the problem,” Meyer said.
Because of their growing presence in the area, she said, the Flock regulation should also include how the city interacts with ICE when it requests access to the data.
Flock retains less than 1% of its nationwide data to ensure the system is up to date with new car models, according to Kristen MacLeod, spokesperson for Flock Safety, at the June 5 meeting.
Also, some residents worried how far the city might go with this system, using safety as motivation.
Mountlake Terrace resident George Stanton said the council had insufficient justification for implementing the license plate tracking system. “So, when Flock comes back in the next two years, and pitches us their next generation product, Nova — which tracks people’s faces — will we adopt it with the same lack of justification?”
On June 5, Mountlake Terrace Police Cmdr. Scott King said they started looking into the system after hearing about successes in nearby cities, including Everett.
Between October 2024 and March 2025, Everett’s Flock system assisted in more than 70 arrests, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said in her State of the City speech in March. According to the city’s June Flock report, the number of stolen vehicles per month in 2025 is down 70% from the city’s previous three-year average.
City Council member Rick Ryan highlighted on Thursday how much he liked seeing such a large reduction in stolen vehicles, he said. Mountlake Terrace needed a similar report to increase accountability, public awareness and community engagement, he said.
The council is considering the appointment of an advisory committee to oversee the Flock system. The city council could reestablish and adjust the parameters of the Community Policing Advisory Board, which was disbanded around 2017, according to City Manager Jeff Niten. They could also create a subcommittee within the Mountlake Terrace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission.
“Personally, I was disappointed years ago when we disbanded the Community Policing Advisory Board,” council member Bryan Wahl said. “I thought they had a lot of great ideas of what we could be doing in outreach and engagement with the community, and I think they played a role in building the trust with our police department.”
The council did not finalize anything Thursday but expressed the need for further discussion. Council members requested specific feedback from the public regarding the Mountlake Terrace Police Department’s Policy 617, along with any other comments on potential safety camera regulations.
Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com.
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