Stockton, California approved a $3.15 million expansion of its contract with Flock Safety to deploy police drones as first responders, capable of reaching 911 call scenes in as little as 30 seconds and covering over 75% of the city. The city council voted 7-0 despite over an hour of public opposition focused on privacy, immigration enforcement, and mass surveillance concerns. Critics highlighted Flock's past record of sharing license plate data with border agents, tracking a woman who had an abortion via its camera network, and an incident of unauthorized access in Mountain View. Flock maintains local agencies control their own data and that federal agencies are blocked from accessing Stockton's data, but the gap between stated policy and past practice remains a central concern.
