October 13, 2026 6:30 a.m. (By Gloria Coleman)
www.nrtoday.com is reporting:
A presentation on Flock Safety cameras in Monday’s Roseburg City Council’s regular meeting seemingly led to more questions than answers and the item returning right onto the next meeting’s agenda.
Roseburg Police Chief Gary Klopfenstein presented information regarding automated license plate readers to the council, after members of the public raised concerns over such technology in the preceding council meetings.
In 2023, the Roseburg City Council received a presentation regarding Flock and authorized the chief to proceed with the contract. Klopfenstein said at that time the city contracted for 15 ALPRs to be placed in ingress/egress locations in Roseburg, which took 11 months to install and have been running since the city entered into a new two-year contract when the first contract expired in February 2026.
Klopfenstein said, “We’re short-staffed, and Flock is a great investigative tool. The public safety problem we were trying to solve is criminal, criminal investigations frequently involve vehicles, vehicles can provide investigators with a connection to a crime, a description of the suspect vehicle, the means of locating stolen property, a lead to missing persons investigations, a connection between otherwise unrelated incidents, and a potential timeline of vehicle activity.”
The technology scans license plates for stolen vehicle status, stolen license plates, missing persons, Amber Alerts or suspected terrorists through the National Crime Information Center. The Douglas County Dispatch receives an alert from Flock directly through the regional network and can dispatch law enforcement response through the system. Roseburg shares information with 22 Flock partners in Oregon.
Council members, then community members, returned with questions and comments and the agenda item took about half of the three hours allotted for the meeting. Councilor Ellen Porter raised questions regarding which other communities in Oregon uses Flock ALPRs and which have cancelled contracts. Councilor Zack Weiss questioned the safety and protection of the data and software.
While a motion from Weiss to suspend the contract with Flock until further discussion drew applause from some audience members, it did not draw a second and died on the floor. Porter started a more successful motion to suspend the conversation until the next council meeting, provided Klopfenstein return with more information on the topic.
The council will meet next at 7:00 p.m. on October 26th.
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