Residents Demand Hearing on Police Data Tool as City Unveils Balanced Budget

El Cerrito's council meeting laid bare two defining tensions: how to rebuild community trust around police technology after the divisive Flock experience, and how to fund aging infrastructure with constrained revenues. At least six residents pressed the council to formally agendize a planned police data software purchase, while staff presented a balanced biennial budget that preserves core services but reveals deferred maintenance and zero dollars for playground equipment over five years.

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Weeks after the El Cerrito City Council voted to end its contract with Flock Safety's license plate reader cameras, Police Chief Paul Keith and City Manager Karen Pinkos used the staff communications segment — not a formal agenda item — to make an extended case for Peregrine Technologies, a data integration tool the department wants to purchase. The preemptive briefing drew sharp pushback from residents who called it a procedural end run.