View the timeline from the original purchase through the current 2026–27 renewal deadline.
Granite Falls and Flock executed the Order Form and Master Services Agreement for FlockOS and seven Falcon cameras. The Order Form sets a 12-month initial term and says the hardware term begins on first installation and validation unless it states otherwise.
Flock’s Oct. 30 invoice lists the period as Oct. 23, 2024 through Oct. 22, 2025. The same invoice also states that, unless the Order Form says otherwise, the Term begins on first installation and validation of Flock hardware.
Chief Tom Dalton reported that Flock began placing cameras around Granite Falls on Feb. 13, 2025. A Feb. 14 deployment update showed four cameras live; the Feb. 13–17 dashboard sample covers five active cameras and records 40,470 total reads and 28,515 unique vehicle reads.
Emails among City officials, police and counsel repeatedly discuss whether Granite Falls would receive Flock records requests and whether it could remain outside the disputes affecting other jurisdictions.
A template letter asks lawmakers to create a specific exemption for ALPR data. Follow-up correspondence discusses supporting legislative change and Flock lobbying.
Balentine proposes a cloud-based process for requesters to obtain responsive Flock information while reducing City administrative burden and liability.
Chief Dalton's 2026 budget memorandum lists a $23,000 Flock renewal as the department's number-one funding priority.
Public Works correspondence documents a request to trim a tree that was blocking the Flock camera on 100th Street.
Councilmember Bruce Straughn writes that he opposed the original Flock contract and remained opposed to the system.
Councilmember Bruce Straughn asks for a future Council discussion and legal interpretation. Chief Dalton separately contacts the Association of Washington Cities about proposed retention and warrant rules.
ESSB 6002 adds a general 21-day retention ceiling, restricted-location rules, sharing controls, registration, audit trails and reporting requirements.
A Public Records Act request is submitted to Granite Falls School District seeking records about whether the District was informed or consulted about the camera near the high school, any field-of-view or privacy concerns, communications with the City/Sheriff/Flock/attorneys, and later ESSB 6002 compliance discussions.
I raised the Granite Falls High School camera-location concern with the Washington Attorney General’s Office and later provided the ALPR/Flock records I had at the time at its request.
During a Sept. 10 meeting with City Manager Jeff Balentine, we reviewed the contract and initially focused on the Oct. 17 execution date. A later version of this site used Sept. 22 by applying the MSA’s 30-day notice requirement to the invoice’s Oct. 23–Oct. 22 billing period.
Nine questions about the high-school camera, data sharing, technical access controls, ownership, audit trails, false alerts, system changes and anonymized data were sent to Chief Tom Dalton and Lt. Todd Swenson. Dalton initially wrote that he was treating the email as a public-disclosure request. I objected that the email sought direct answers rather than identifiable public records and cited Washington public-records law and Snohomish County’s published request standards. Dalton subsequently answered the questions directly.
Mayor Matt Hartman responded to my email and said he believes the public-safety tradeoff is justified. He acknowledged “a measure of loss of autonomy” from the technology and said he considers that tradeoff worthwhile if it helps save lives, recover vehicles or return abducted children.
At that point this site still treated Sept. 22 as the practical non-renewal deadline. Further review of the Order Form, MSA and installation records shifted the working timeline to February.
City Clerk Darla Wilkins states that the sixth installment completes the City’s production. The City directs several remaining operational categories to SCSO, including Attorney General registration material, audit/search/access logs, outside-agency access records, and complaints or inquiries held by SCSO. Installment 6 contains additional Council packets, police reports and ALPR compliance presentations, but not the requested SCSO query-by-query audit/search/access logs.
The MSA and Order Form tie the 12-month term to first installation and validation unless the Order Form says otherwise. City records show installation began Feb. 13, 2025, and a Feb. 4, 2026 City presentation identifies Feb. 13 as the renewal date. Balentine later confirmed that the MSA Terms and Conditions are correct. The invoice’s Oct. 23–Oct. 22 period remains a separate billing-period entry.
A petition calling for the removal of Flock Safety cameras from Granite Falls, containing 93 signatures, was submitted to City Council and staff.
The campaign presented information about Granite Falls' Flock ALPR program at a community meeting. View presentation (PDF) ↗
Listen to Councilmember Bruce Straughn’s remarks and Chief Thomas Dalton’s remarks about the Flock camera, or play the complete meeting.
The starting points below are approximate. Each player uses the complete meeting recording and continues through the remainder of the meeting so you can hear the surrounding context.
Start: approximately 19:00.
Start: approximately 46:00.
Start: beginning of recording.
A separate SCSO public-records request remains open for ALPR policies, access information, Attorney General registration material, audit/search/access logs, records of outside-agency access, correspondence and camera-status material. SCSO has estimated its next installment on or before Nov. 23.
The MSA requires at least 30 days’ notice before the end of the current term. Using Feb. 13, 2027 as the working renewal date, the non-renewal notice window falls in mid-January 2027.
This site uses Feb. 13, 2027 as the working renewal date because City records show first installation began Feb. 13, 2025 and later City materials identify Feb. 13 as the renewal date.