Former Eugene Police Commissioner Scott Lemons Files Second Lawsuit Over Flock Plates

A lawsuit served to the City of Eugene on Feb. 5 asks the court to force release of license plate data from the Flock Safety automated license plate reader system, intensifying local debate over police surveillance and public records access. The suit was filed by former Eugene Police Commissioner Scott Lemons and is tied to the period from Oct. 8 to Dec. 12, 2025.

Lemons’ court filing seeks “a list of all unique license plate numbers captured by the Flock Safety ALPR system” for the specified period. He argues the records are necessary for “transparency regarding the Eugene Police Department's compliance with City Council directives” and frames the work as a routine public records task, saying querying an existing database to retrieve information for a public records request is simply “a search and retrieval function, not the creation of new record.”

Eugene Police denied Lemons’ request before the lawsuit, telling him the department “has no such list and isn't required to generate one.” The new action, described in filing materials as an appeal to Lane County Circuit Court, asks a judge to resolve whether the city must perform database queries to produce a list of unique plates rather than only supplying preexisting documents.

The dispute builds on earlier litigation over the same Flock program. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Eugene in October seeking a list of camera locations; that case was dismissed Jan. 6 after Eugene Police revealed the locations. Available materials also note that “On the first appeal, Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa agreed,” though the public excerpts do not make clear which position he endorsed.

Flock automated license plate reader cameras capture photographs of passing cars with timestamps and locations and use artificial intelligence to interpret those pictures, making them searchable for police use. City documents show Eugene ended its contract with Flock on Dec. 5, 2025, and Lemons’ requested window extends to Dec. 12, described in filings as one week after the contract ended. In the wake of the Oct. 8 City Council vote recommending the cameras be turned off, the city’s Flock cameras read approximately 8,500 license plates, a figure cited in public summaries of the dispute.

The cameras have been a visible presence in town. A photograph from Oct. 18 shows a Flock camera overlooking Coburg Road during a ‘No Kings’ rally, underscoring how surveillance technology intersects with local protest activity.

For Eugene residents, the legal contest matters in two ways: it could set a precedent on what municipal staff must do to fulfill public records requests, and it could determine how much vehicle-movement data is disclosed publicly. If Lemons succeeds in court, city agencies could be required to run searches of vendor-managed databases and produce compiled lists; if Eugene prevails, the decision could limit demands that public bodies create new records from raw data. The Lane County Circuit Court filing will be the next public step in a case that is likely to shape transparency and privacy practices in Eugene going forward.