Eugene’s mayor has publicly addressed the growing backlash against the city’s recent deployment of AI-powered license plate readers from Flock Safety. The system, which creates a ‘digital fingerprint’ of vehicles and connects to a national database, has sparked significant privacy concerns among residents and civil liberties advocates. Critics worry about potential data access by federal law enforcement, a fear not fully assuaged by a recent agreement Senator Ron Wyden brokered with the vendor to limit data sharing for Oregonians. Mayor Kaarin Knudson acknowledged the need for a public dialogue on the technology’s safeguards and purpose, framing it as a tool for police to identify individuals involved in ‘significant criminal activity.’ The city council is expected to take up the contentious issue this fall, forcing a debate over the trade-offs between surveillance-based policing and individual privacy rights.