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License-plate readers · Kittitas County

Kittitas County

Using license-plate readers · 1 agency documented

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Ellensburg Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
13
13 LPR and other cameras listed on the department's Flock transparency portal (last updated June 25, 2025).
Contract
Flock Safety: $42,000 · from Aug. 2024 · approved by Ellensburg City Council · Purchase of nearly $42,000, with an estimated recurring cost of about $39,000 a year paid from the city's three-tenths of 1% tax. (Ellensburg Daily Record, Aug. 22, 2024)
  1. Aug. 2024 The Ellensburg City Council approved a Flock purchase of nearly $42,000; individual votes were not reported. (Ellensburg Daily Record, Aug. 22, 2024)
  2. June 25, 2025 The department's Flock portal listed 13 cameras, 30-day retention, and prohibited uses including immigration and traffic enforcement; it reported 178,648 vehicle detections and 122 searches over the prior 30 days. (Flock Safety, June 25, 2025)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The Daily Record story (Aug. 22, 2024) does not give the council meeting date, so the month is used.
  • The portal's retention figure predates the 21-day limit in the 2026 state law; post-law status not found.

From agency records.

Statewide

  1. 2025 A University of Washington Center for Human Rights report on Flock networks in the state said as many as 80 public agencies in Washington reportedly use Flock, and examined how agencies share the data, including with federal agencies. (University of Washington Center for Human Rights, Oct. 21, 2025)
  2. Feb. 4, 2026 The state Senate passed Senate Bill 6002, sponsored by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma), 40-9. At that stage the bill required plate-reader data to be deleted within 21 days unless needed as evidence (a Senate committee had lengthened this from 72 hours), largely barred sharing, banned use for civil immigration enforcement and kept the data out of public records requests, apart from use in research. (Washington State Standard / KUOW, Feb. 5, 2026)
  3. March 2026 The state House passed SB 6002 84-10 in early March 2026. The House version added gross misdemeanors to the permitted investigative uses, and the bill returned to the Senate for concurrence. (Washington State Standard, March 6, 2026)
  4. March 30, 2026 Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 6002 on March 30, 2026, and it took effect at once. Police may now run plate searches only for felony or gross-misdemeanor cases, stolen cars, cars linked to people with arrest warrants, and missing or endangered people (with exceptions). Reads must be purged after 21 days unless kept as evidence, and they can be shared only for court cases. The law forbids using the readers for immigration enforcement or to monitor protected activity such as speech. It forbids collecting data near protected health care or immigration sites, schools, courts, food banks and houses of worship. Agencies must log who accessed the data and keep those logs for two years, and the data is closed to public records requests except for research. (Washington State Standard / KUOW, March 31, 2026)
  5. March 30, 2026 SB 6002 directs the Attorney General's Office to develop model plate-reader policies by July 1, 2027. Agencies must adopt them by December 2027. (Washington State Standard / KUOW, March 31, 2026; Washington State Standard, March 6, 2026)
  6. March 30, 2026 Flock Safety said it was already complying with parts of the law, such as purging data after 21 days. (Washington State Standard / KUOW, March 31, 2026)