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License-plate readers · Skamania County

Skamania County

Use suspended · 1 agency documented

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Skamania County Sheriff's Office

Status
Use suspended
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
6
Six Flock cameras, all disabled, per the Camas-Washougal Post-Record and Columbia Gorge News (OPB said at least six).
Contract
Flock Safety: · from Dec. 2024 · to Dec. 2026 · Two-year contract running through December 2026; the county does not plan to renew. Infrastructure stays in place until the contract ends. (OPB, Nov. 14, 2025; Camas-Washougal Post-Record, Nov. 20, 2025; Columbia Gorge News, Dec. 24, 2025)
  1. Dec. 2024 Sheriff's office installed Flock cameras in December 2024 for stolen-vehicle recovery and Amber and Silver Alerts. (OPB, Nov. 14, 2025)
  2. Nov. 12, 2025 Sheriff Summer Scheyer announced all six cameras had been disabled, citing privacy concerns and public-records obligations; the office said it would not renew the contract at the end of 2026. (OPB, Nov. 14, 2025; Camas-Washougal Post-Record, Nov. 20, 2025; Columbia Gorge News, Dec. 24, 2025)
  3. Dec. 2025 Columbia Gorge News reported the office had limited access to in-state users and cut retention from 30 days to seven; its review of search logs from December 2024 to June 2025 found the office searched its own data 513 times, while the Houston Police Department searched Skamania's data more than 83,000 times. (Columbia Gorge News, Dec. 24, 2025)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The cameras were disabled, not removed; a Columbia Gorge News photo caption said the lens of the camera at the Underwood In-Lieu Site had not been covered as of Dec. 19, 2025.

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)