At Least 10 Local Governments Move to Drop Flock Surveillance Cameras

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (OPA) — Municipalities including Monroe, Ohio; Newburgh, New York; Richmond, Virginia; Hopkinton, Massachusetts; New Bedford, Massachusetts; and Lansing, Michigan, have terminated or moved to end their contracts with Flock in the past three months. Police departments in East Bridgewater and Grafton, Massachusetts, also announced plans to halt camera usage. In League City, Texas, residents voted against the continued use of automated license plate readers, while Asheville, North Carolina, and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado cut ties with the vendor earlier in the year. The resistance stems from concerns over data sharing, procurement transparency, and high-profile instances of misuse. In Brentwood, Missouri, an officer was accused of using the technology to stalk his ex-wife during a divorce, while another officer in East Texas received a prison sentence for tracking an ex-girlfriend and her family.

Privacy advocates have also flagged unauthorized access by federal immigration authorities. A municipal resolution in Ithaca, New York, cited instances where federal agents utilized Flock infrastructure without local authorization. Tatiana Rice, a senior director for U.S. legislation at The Future of Privacy Forum, noted that the visible nature of street cameras fuels public skepticism. "A camera at the end of your street is tangible in a way that everyday sharing and selling of personal data online is not," Rice said. At the state level, Florida barred license plate readers from state highways over the summer, and Texas paused state funding for the company.

Flock, founded in 2017, operates more than 100,000 surveillance devices nationwide, including license plate readers, drones, and acoustic gunshot detectors. Defending its platform, the company stated that law enforcement agencies rely on the technology to solve violent crimes and locate missing persons. "Every Flock customer owns its data and controls who it is shared with and how it can be used," Flock said in a statement, adding that it does not sell data or maintain contracts with ICE. In August, the company shortened its default data retention period for new customers from 30 days to seven and implemented mandatory case codes for database searches.

Despite the pushback, many municipalities continue to utilize or expand surveillance networks under tighter restrictions. Cleveland, Ohio, recently renewed its contract with Flock while restricting immigration-related searches and limiting database access exclusively to city police. Grassroots activists continue to lobby local city councils to exercise procurement oversight over surveillance technologies, mirroring broader nationwide debates surrounding the rapid deployment of data centers and municipal AI infrastructure.