Redmond police turned off their city’s Flock Safety cameras last week after masked, unidentified officers — later identified as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — arrested three people, each less than a mile from at least one of the city’s cameras.

During a City Council session Oct. 27, Redmond police Chief Darrell Lowe said no federal agency had accessed the city’s Flock data, but agreed to suspend officers’ access to the system until city officials had discussed ending Redmond’s contract with the company.

Redmond City Council member Angie Nuevacamina said Thursday the proximity of the arrests to some of the city’s cameras was coincidental, and not because ICE had “somehow tapped into” Redmond’s Flock cameras or data. The city suspended its Flock system because city officials could not guarantee they wouldn’t be forced to release data collected by those devices someday, she said.

Their concerns may have been prescient.
On Thursday, a Skagit County Superior Court judge ruled that pictures taken by Flock cameras in the cities of Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood qualify as public records, and therefore must be released as required by the state’s Public Records Act, court records show.