West Hollywood residents are getting bombarded with phone calls from Councilmember John Erickson. The unsolicited outreach comes from an 805 area code out of Ventura County and features callers pitching hard against the city’s Flock Safety contract just ahead of Monday’s March 16 City Council meeting. Several resident accounts describes a caller introducing themselves as representing the “Chamber of Progress” before launching into why Flock’s license plate readers are supposedly a bad idea due to privacy risks and alleged ICE connections.
Many residents are reporting that the unsolicited caller offered a direct patch-through to a councilmember and Erickson himself came on the line doubling down on the anti-Flock stance over ICE worries.
Residents are now warning neighbors: if you receive one of these calls, write down the number fast before you pick up. Reports of similar calls are popping up more and more, leaving people concerned about just how widespread this campaign really is. Report your calls to city hall.
Erickson sells the effort as standing up for privacy in our progressive city, protecting immigrant communities from federal data grabs through Flock. Sounds noble on paper. But look closer at what he actually supports.
Erickson and Councilmember Chelsea Byers voted to bring in security through Allied Universal, the giant firm whose subsidiary G4S Secure Solutions has long held big contracts with ICE itself. G4S provides armed guards, transportation, and monitoring services straight to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
These are the real “ICE-linked guards” we have called out before: direct, paid partnerships with federal immigration enforcement. Yet Erickson never ran a robocall blitz against that deal. No mass outreach warning about those ties. No dramatic patch-throughs to rail against Allied Universal or G4S. Just silence on one front while he dials up the noise on the other.
That double standard is what has residents talking. The calls feel like targeted propaganda, heavy on one issue and blind to the bigger picture. In a city that claims to champion vulnerable groups, it is tough to square the intense push against Flock’s data risks with the green light given to a provider literally contracted to ICE.
The March 16 meeting will put this all to the test. The agenda includes the staff report back on the Flock program (item details in the packet cover review of agreements, data practices, and options forward). Choices on the table range from tightening contract terms to hunt for other vendors, shutting down cameras temporarily, or outright canceling the deals with removal costs potentially hitting $150,000 to $200,000. Erickson’s calls aim to stack the deck against keeping Flock.
But if residents show up asking why Allied Universal and G4S get a pass, the conversation could get real interesting.
One last heads-up on the council split: Erickson and Byers are driving hard to ditch Flock, but Mayor John Heilman and Councilmember Lauren Meister point out its usefulness against street crime spikes.
Killing Flock might just open the door to some new setup or lock in more reliance on those Allied Universal services.
Residents, this is your shot to call out the inconsistencies. Head to Council Chambers at 6:00 PM on March 16 or drop comments online. Transparency should apply across the board, not just where it fits the narrative.
Critical to the conversation is the question of who is paying for this propaganda campaign. Erickson has again and again exhibited a stealth approach to much of his political manipulations and I question what lengths he will go to in his quest for higher office.