WTFlock! Thur Berkeley 4pm rally, 5pm City Council meeting to decide if we get spied on
1231 Addison St. near Acton in the Berkeley Unified School District auditorium where the City Council meets
this THURSDAY 5/7:
4pm rally and press conference
5pm special City Council meeting where they’ll decide whether to contract with notorious Flock
Sign up to make a 1 minute public comment via Zoom. or in person.
The swing votes are Councilmembers Brett Blackaby (district 6) and Ben Bartlett (district 3). Paraphrase my letter below for talking points if you wish. We need them both to join the Mayor and Councilmembers Lunapara and Tregub in voting NO on renewing the Flock contract. It’s best to send two separate emails, addressed individually to each:
brent@brentblackaby.com
bbartlett@berkeleyca.gov
If you don’t mind it being part of the public record, copy the mayor/Council general email address: council@berkeleyca.gov
Call your City Council member to tell them why you think Berkeley should cancel Flock (though Councilmembers Humbert, Kesharwani, and O’Keefe are hopeless.)
Hello Councilmember Blackaby:
Your Cinco de Mayo (of all days!) communication is alarming. I hope I’m wrong but, from your choice of words, it sounds like you want Berkeley to contract with Flock and are trying to drum up support for it. Let’s be clear: Turning off ALPRs would NOT mean fewer cases solved, fewer victims getting closure, or more crimes going unchecked. You are trying to convince us that Flock will make us safer, and some of your less informed constituents may fall for that, but that is NOT the case. UC Berkeley's Criminal Law and Justice Center found no evidence that surveillance or drones helps solve more crime over time. You are spinning it as being for public safety, but Flock actually decreases public safety.
Surely you read the ACLU analysis (attached) which demonstrates that any efforts by cities to restrict Flock from sharing data are without ANY effect, so a clause to that effect will only be symbolic. A vote for Flock would be a betrayal of our safety and our right to privacy! Sharing our data with ICE fuels harassment and deportation of innocent people, too often including citizens and law-abiding immigrants who are here with proper documentation.
The highly esteemed
Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF.org
https://EFF.org
documented Flock being used to surveil protesters in its 2025 report.
Furthermore, contracting with Flock would cost millions at a time when Berkeley faces a $30 million deficit, as funding runs out for effective gun violence reduction programs. The true price tag would likely be much worse. California cities are facing expensive lawsuits due to Flock's repeated violation of Sanctuary laws. Please, those funds are better spent on fire-fighters and proven violence prevention. That would help public safety!
There are at least 63 cities that already cancelled their Flock contracts. Berkeley should have been first! I am chagrined and alarmed that this will be a close vote at the special 5pm meeting on Thursday.
If Berkeley signs on, our taxes will unacceptably feed a network that 5,000+ law enforcement agencies across 49 states — including Homeland Security — can access without a warrant in direct violation of Berkeley's sanctuary city ordinance. What happened to the Berkeley I love, the People’s Republic of Berkeley that not only championed but exemplified democracy and human rights? That was before your time, but I remember that era with great fondness.
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