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License-plate readers · Skagit County

Skagit County

Using license-plate readers · 2 agencies documented

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Mount Vernon Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
6
Six Flock cameras, per the Skagit Valley Herald (Oct. 27, 2025).
Contract
Flock Safety: $38,550 total · Installation cost $38,550 with an annual fee of about $18,000. (Skagit Valley Herald, Oct. 27, 2025)
  1. Oct. 2025 Police Chief Dan Christman said the six cameras remained in use, data is deleted after 30 days, and data is not shared with federal immigration enforcement. (Skagit Valley Herald, Oct. 27, 2025)
  2. 2026 Unlike Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood, which shut their cameras off over the public-records question, Mount Vernon kept its cameras running. (Skagit Valley Herald, 2026)
  3. Aug. 13, 2026 Skagit Valley Herald reported Flock cameras in use by Mount Vernon law enforcement. (Skagit Valley Herald, Aug. 13, 2026)

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Sedro-Woolley Police Department

Status
Ended or removed
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
7
Seven Flock cameras, per the Skagit Valley Herald.
Contract
Flock Safety: $44,548 total · from March 2025 · to March 2027 · Two-year contract; the 2026 bill was prorated to $7,100 for time the cameras were off. City moved to end it early in September 2026. (Skagit Valley Herald, Oct. 27, 2025; Skagit Valley Herald, 2026; Skagit Valley Herald, Sept. 24, 2026)
  1. March 2025 Seven Flock cameras went live. (Skagit Valley Herald, Oct. 27, 2025)
  2. June 2025 The city switched off its cameras while the public-records question was pending. (Skagit Valley Herald, Oct. 27, 2025)
  3. 2026 City Council voted to turn the cameras back on after the new state law; Chief Dan McIlraith expected them on by June 1. (Skagit Valley Herald, 2026)
  4. Sept. 2026 City Council authorized Chief McIlraith to seek a mutual early termination of the Flock contract, with a notice of non-renewal as a fallback, and asked Flock to deactivate the cameras immediately and remove the hardware. (Skagit Valley Herald, Sept. 24, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The reactivation vote article is undated; it falls between April and June 2026.
  • Termination vote was "Wednesday's" meeting in a Sept. 24, 2026 article, likely Sept. 23.
  • McIlraith said the cameras were on about six months in total during the contract.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

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)