Flock warned Capitola an FBI sharing request was coming and supplied scripted answers for city councils

Flock told its law enforcement customers in March that agencies sharing data federally "may receive a data sharing request from the FBI in the coming days," then followed up a week later with a ready-made Q&A for city councils.

The two mass emails reached Capitola PD on March 23 and March 30, 2026, and were produced under California Public Records Act request 124. The first, from Flock senior vice president Chris Colwell, describes the company's federal sharing framework: agency networks are undiscoverable by federal users by default, and enabling federal sharing requires an opt-in process the company calls "Three Gates." The same email carries the warning. "Please be aware that clients who are currently sharing with federal law enforcement agencies, or who enable federal sharing in response to this message, may receive a data sharing request from the FBI in the coming days."

The March 30 follow-up supplies the words for local oversight. "You can forward this email as-is, or copy/paste the section below into your own memo, packet, or slide deck," it reads. The packaged Q&A states that "Flock does not contract with DHS agencies, does not sell or share data with DHS, and has no relationship with ICE or CBP," includes a section rebutting what it calls the "breach narrative," and carves out the past: "These defaults do not change or cancel any existing federal MOUs or agreements we have already put in place; they mainly govern new relationships going forward."

The no-relationship claim has history. In May 2025, 404 Media reported that local police around the country were running immigration-related Flock lookups on behalf of ICE, which held no Flock contract of its own. In August 2025, data released by police departments showed Customs and Border Protection had searched tens of thousands of Flock cameras through a pilot program the company had not disclosed, and Flock said afterward that it paused all federal pilots. The council Q&A's denial covers contracts and direct relationships. The documented federal access ran through local agencies and pilots.

The March 23 email presents undiscoverability by default as the safeguard while confirming, in the same message, that a specific federal agency is about to send requests through the system. The Q&A notes federal sharing is fully disabled in California and Virginia under state law, and attributes public concern to YouTube videos and FOIA releases rather than the sharing architecture itself. When the vendor writes both the sharing system and the script local police read to their councils, oversight runs on vendor copy.

Source: Capitola Police Department, California PRA request 124, Bates CAP_PRA_124_000390 (federal collaboration update), 000409 to 000411 (council Q&A). Prior reporting on federal access: 404 Media, May and August 2025.