41 outside agencies ran 16,029 potentially illegal searches of our town's license-plate cameras in six months, including audits for federal immigration agencies. The town expanded access while it was investigating itself. [The Ark, 2026]
Source: The Ark investigation & follow-up audit, 2026. Tiburon Police Chief Michelle Jean acknowledged 23 agencies ran potentially illegal federal searches.
The "30-day retention" on the transparency portal is the police department's access window. Flock Safety is not the government. It is a private, venture-funded company in Atlanta, and a different set of rules applies to it.
Flock's own terms grant the company an "irrevocable, perpetual" license to use your data to "support and improve" its products. The 30-day window doesn't bind that.
[Flock Terms & Conditions; ACLU analysis]Flock's contract used to say it "shall not sell Customer Data." The ACLU documents that the sentence was removed from the terms. The guardrail is gone.
[ACLU, "Flock's Terms and Conditions"]You can file a Public Records Act request to the Tiburon police. You cannot file one against a venture-funded company. The accountability stops at the town line.
[California Public Records Act applies to agencies, not private firms]Flock has raised over $950M and is valued around $8 billion. A company that size has investors to repay, and your movements are the product.
[TechCrunch, 2025; reported valuation 2026]One local search queries a national network. Outside agencies have tapped Flock's nationwide system for thousands of immigration lookups through local police, with no Flock contract of their own. The camera on your street is a doorway into all of it. [404 Media; EFF]
Two investigations by Tiburon's own newspaper documented all of this from public records.
Tiburon's cameras are not a law of nature. They are a vendor contract and a police policy, approved by the Town Council, the Town Manager, and the Police Chief. Surveillance contracts in towns this size often pass quietly on the consent calendar. The fix is to make it loud and on the record.
Write to them now, get counted →
Town Council: town@townoftiburon.org · 415-435-7373. Police Chief: Michelle Jean. Council meets the 1st & 3rd Wednesday, 6:30pm, 1505 Tiburon Blvd. townoftiburon.org/Town-Council
These are five-person councils. They hear from almost no one. A handful of residents at one meeting has turned cameras off across the country.
Sources: Red Rock News (Sedona); The Ark (Belvedere); Evanston RoundTable; Harvard Crimson (Cambridge); LAist (South Pasadena); 9News (Denver).
One firm, non-partisan email. Ask them to pull Flock off the consent calendar, end outside and federal access like Belvedere did, and say in writing what Flock keeps. Copy the draft below, add your name, send it.
Dear Mayor Welner and members of the Town Council, I am a Tiburon resident. The Ark has documented that 41 outside agencies ran 16,029 potentially illegal searches of our town's license-plate cameras in six months, including audits for federal immigration agencies. I am asking the Council to: 1. Put Tiburon's Flock/ALPR program on a public agenda, not the consent calendar. 2. End all outside-agency and federal access, as Belvedere did. 3. Tell residents in writing what Flock the company retains after the police department's 30-day window, and what its contract allows. 4. Consider ending the contract, as Sedona, Evanston and South Pasadena have. The cameras scan everyone, and the data leaves town. Please restore the boundary line. [Your name and street]
Two minutes of public comment, in person, is worth a hundred emails. Sedona turned its cameras off after twelve people spoke at one meeting. Bring a neighbor.
Make the town show the contract, the audit logs, and who has access. It is your right, it is free, and it forces the paper trail into daylight. Copy the request below and email it to the Town Clerk.
To the Town Clerk, Town of Tiburon: Under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code section 7920.000 et seq.), I request copies of the following records: 1. The current Flock Safety contract or order form, and any amendments. 2. The ALPR network audit logs for the past 12 months, including the searching agency, the username, and the stated reason for each search. 3. All data-sharing agreements and the current list of agencies with access to Tiburon's ALPR data. 4. Tiburon Police Department Policy 414 (ALPR) and any revisions. Please provide these records electronically. If any portion is withheld, please cite the specific exemption. [Your name and contact email]
Same machine, different town. We will build your town its own page, with your council, your numbers, and your draft emails.