A public ledger of what jurisdictions decided about license plate
surveillance — and, unusually, what happened after they decided
it.
Why this exists. Several good public databases
track where surveillance cameras are and which agencies bought
them. None of them record reversals. Four days after
Chandler, Arizona shut down forty license plate readers, the most
widely cited national deployment database still listed Chandler
as a 2019 deployment of a different vendor’s equipment, with
no record of the cameras that had just been switched off.
Databases built to record arrivals do not record departures. That
makes it very hard for a resident to answer the one question that
actually persuades a city council: has anywhere like us
already decided this, and did the sky fall?
City of Chandler / Chandler Police Department (administrative non-renewal) · Flock Safety · 40 cameras
Chandler announced it will discontinue its 40 fixed Flock Safety license plate readers and will not renew its service agreement, after a routine audit identified what the police chief described as potential misuse of the system by someone inside the department.
Pinal County Sheriff's Office (Sheriff Ross Teeple) · Flock Safety · 45 cameras
The Pinal County Sheriff announced the office will not renew its Flock Safety contract when it expires at the end of September 2026, citing Fourth Amendment concerns. Roughly half the affected cameras sit inside San Tan Valley.
The Narragansett Town Council voted 5-0 by voice vote on August 3, 2026 to cancel the town's contract with Flock Safety and take its remaining cameras out of service immediately. The contract ran through September 2027 with automatic renewal and was paid from asset forfeiture funds rather than tax revenue. Three of the town's four cameras were still operational at the time of the vote, one having been stolen.
The Ord City Council voted unanimously, 5-0, to begin removing the two Flock Safety cameras within city limits, making Ord the first city in Nebraska to reject the technology outright. The cameras had been installed in late 2025 under a $49,000 grant that Region 26 — the 911 center and emergency management office serving Valley County and 19 other central Nebraska counties — entered into with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency in August 2025; Valley County opted in for two cameras, both sited in Ord. City Attorney Heather Sikyta was directed to write to Region 26 Emergency Management and the state to determine whether the cameras can come down immediately or what additional steps are required.
The Harrisonburg City Council voted 4-0 on July 28, 2026 to adopt a resolution terminating the city's contract with Flock Group, Inc., directing staff to stop using the city's fixed automatic license plate recognition system within seven days and to work with Flock to remove the cameras. The resolution states that the council determined the benefits of the fixed camera system were outweighed by concerns about privacy, equity, data security and public trust. Harrisonburg Police Department had been using 31 Flock-owned ALPRs.
The South Kingstown Town Council voted unanimously on July 27, 2026 to terminate the town's contract with Flock Safety and remove its half-dozen automated license plate reader cameras. The town had awarded the contract on June 23, 2025, issued the purchase order July 8, 2025 and signed the agreement July 16-17, 2025; the one-year trial had only begun when the first camera was installed and validated on February 19, 2026.
Monroe County Board of Commissioners · Flock Safety · 6 cameras
The Monroe County Board of Commissioners voted 2-0, with Commissioner Lee Jones absent, to terminate the county's Flock Safety contract and remove six license plate readers, accepting a $3,000 removal fee. The original 2021 agreement was $16,500. Commissioner Thomas cited data misuse — 'The way the data has been abused, and we've seen national stories about this, is terrible' — and Commissioner Madeira called the removal cost well spent. Sheriff Ruben Marté supported the termination, agreeing it aligned with the values of most Monroe County residents. Commissioners acknowledged the cameras had helped locate missing persons and investigate crimes but concluded national misuse reports outweighed those benefits.
Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo announced on July 23, 2026 that the city would not renew its contract with Flock Safety, which had expired June 30, 2026. Pangallo said "The city has determined that there are insufficient protections for the ALPR data generated by Flock's systems" and that such data "should be owned and used only in furtherance of Salem's public safety priorities." The Flock cameras had gone out of use on July 1.
The Redmond City Council voted 7-0 to terminate the city's contract with Flock Safety and end its automated license plate reader program, clearing the way to remove all 24 ALPRs in the city. The termination followed an eight-month suspension: the council recommended disabling the system on 2025-11-03, and voted 5-0 on 2025-11-12 to formally suspend the program pending further discussion.
The Elkton Town Council voted 5-0 on the evening of Monday, July 20, 2026 to terminate the town's agreement with Flock Safety effective immediately. Councilman Aaron Napotnik moved to terminate and Councilwoman Virginia Fulginiti seconded; Councilwoman Rachel Michael was absent. The town's Flock contract had been signed in 2024 by the town manager and police department without council approval or public discussion.
The Appleton Common Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution terminating the city's contract with Flock Safety for license plate reader cameras. The council action followed Mayor Jake Woodford's May 6, 2026 announcement that Appleton would stop using Flock products — and, he said, automated license plate cameras from any vendor, not only Flock. Woodford said concerns about the integrity of Flock's underlying system had eroded the city's trust and that examples of illegitimate use of Flock data by personnel in other departments reinforced accountability concerns outside Appleton's control as a customer. The city stopped using the cameras June 30, 2026, covered them, notified Flock in June, and requested removal by July 31.
Cleveland City Council · Flock Safety · 100 cameras
Cleveland City Council voted 9-6 to approve an amended six-month, $125,000 extension of the city's Flock Safety contract covering 100 license plate reader cameras, running through Dec 29, 2026. Council shortened the term from one year to six months to press the mayor to find a new vendor faster, and attached substantial conditions: the Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center — a local-federal partnership managed by DHS — is cut off from Cleveland's Flock data; Flock is prohibited from sharing data with governments or third parties and faces fines if found to have sold collected data; access is limited to local law enforcement with warrants required for third-party requests; data retention is capped at 30 days; and police must stand up an online transparency portal and report to council quarterly. Voting yes: Council President Blaine Griffin, Michael Polensek, Kevin Conwell, Kevin Bishop, Richard Starr, Brian Kazy, Charles Slife, Joe Jones, Deborah Gray. Voting no: Jasmin Santana, Nikki Hudson, Tanmay Shah, Kris Harsh, Stephanie Howse-Jones, Austin Davis.
The Warren City Council voted 4-3 to let the Warren Police Department extend its license plate reader contract for a second two-year period at $132,000. The vote was a re-vote: Councilwoman Melody Magee had asked to reconsider her June 2026 vote, when the extension passed 4-2. On the July 14 re-vote Magee, Angela Rogensues, and Henry Newnan voted against; Mindy Moore, Gary Boike, Dave Dwyer, and Jonathan Lafferty voted in favor. Warren has used Flock Safety since 2021.
The Huntington City Council voted 6-4 in a meeting beginning July 13, 2026 and running into the early hours of the next morning to adopt a resolution entering a five-year, $2.1 million contract with Flock Safety. The package includes more than 40 license plate readers, 17 live video cameras, vehicle fingerprint technology, two gunshot detection devices and two automatically dispatched drones. More than 50 residents spoke during public comment and all but one opposed the resolution.
Los Angeles Police Department (agency head) · Flock Safety
The Los Angeles Police Department allowed its three-year contract with Flock Safety to expire rather than renew it. LAPD Chief Information Officer Dean Gialamas cited serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights, particularly privacy and control of the data collected by the cameras, and a dispute over who owns and controls that data. As the third-largest police department in the country, LAPD's exit was among the most significant losses in Flock's roughly 80,000-camera national footprint.
The Windsor Town Council voted 5-4 on July 6, 2026 against restoring the town's Flock Safety cameras, permanently ending the program and the town's contract. The 16 fixed cameras had already been switched off since February 18, 2026, when the council voted 8-1 to shut down the system while officials sought answers about who could access the data. Mayor Nuchette Black-Burke said Flock could not guarantee that federal law enforcement was not using the system to track residents.
Police Chief Lester Baker, in coordination with Mayor Charlie Sisitsky and the City Council Rules, Ordinances and Ethics Subcommittee · Flock Safety
The Framingham Police Department announced on June 25, 2026 that it would not renew its contract with Flock Safety, which was set to expire June 30, 2026. The decision was made in coordination with Mayor Charlie Sisitsky and the City Council Rules, Ordinances and Ethics Subcommittee, following months of resident opposition expressed through public meetings, letters and council testimony beginning in February 2026.
At a special meeting, the Berkeley City Council voted 5-4 to approve a 12-month, $200,000 extension of its Flock Safety ALPR contract, then voted 8-1 to reject a proposed expansion that would have added fixed cameras, community video streams, first-responder drones and criminal investigations software. The expansion contract could have totaled roughly $2 million. About 100 public commenters opposed both the renewal and the expansion.
El Cerrito City Council · Flock Safety · 40 cameras
After more than an hour of largely opposed public comment, the El Cerrito City Council voted 3-2 in the early hours of Wednesday 2026-05-06 not to renew its Flock Safety contract, ending the program after nearly three years. Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Saltzman, Lisa Motoyama and William Ktsanes voted to end the agreement; Mayor Gabriel Quinto and Carolyn Wysinger voted to renew, citing crime concerns. The vote followed disclosure that federal agencies had accessed data from the city's 40 cameras without police knowledge.
The Tompkins County Legislature voted 12-1 on April 14, 2026 to terminate the county's contract with Flock Safety and remove both the license plate reader network and Flock gunshot detection devices. The vote came before a May 28 automatic renewal that would have extended the agreement two more years. The Tompkins County Sheriff's Office and Ithaca Police Department had contracted with Flock since 2023, funded through New York State's Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative.
After delaying the item in February and March, the Dunwoody City Council unanimously approved a 12-month master services agreement with Flock Safety covering license plate readers, drones, and other tools feeding the police department's real-time crime center. City Attorney Jill Dunn negotiated contract terms city leaders described as 'guardrails': Dunwoody retains full ownership of captured data, Flock is barred from selling the data or using it for advertising, Dunwoody data will no longer train Flock's software or AI, the city can cut off data sharing with federal agencies, and a prior provision letting Flock use Dunwoody's camera network for product demonstrations was removed. The council separately approved a $15,000 Flock OS 911 system contract and a $200,000 Drone as First Responder agreement.
The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to impose a 60-day pause on surveillance data collection where a technology can be used for civil immigration enforcement or threatens access to reproductive justice or gender-affirming care. In the same session the council unanimously passed a companion bill aligning the municipal code with state law limiting when Seattle Police officers may inquire into immigration status. The measures respond to Washington SB 6002, which bars ALPR use around schools, places of worship, food banks and courthouses.
The Syracuse Common Council voted unanimously on March 23, 2026 to revoke Flock Safety's privileges to place license plate readers in the city's right-of-way, finalizing the city's break with the vendor. The council had already approved a replacement contract with Axon Enterprise in February 2026. The decision followed reporting that Syracuse Police Department data was included in 175 CBP-related searches between March 10 and May 1 of the prior year after federal agents gained access through another agency's data-sharing agreement in Flock's national network.
The Richmond City Council voted 4-3 to reactivate the city's Flock Safety ALPR system under a new short-term contract running through 2026-12-31. Councilmembers Jamelia Brown, Soheila Bana, Cesar Zepeda and Doria Robinson voted in favor; Richmond Progressive Alliance-aligned members Claudia Jimenez and Sue Wilson and Mayor Eduardo Martinez opposed. The cameras had been switched off in November 2025 after Police Chief Timothy Simmons discovered a National Search feature was active, allowing outside agencies to access Richmond data in conflict with the city's sanctuary policies.
The Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees voted 4-1 on March 9, 2026 to cancel the village's contract with Flock Safety, halting activation of cameras that had already been installed. The board's resolution also requires that any future contract for surveillance technology receive board authorization. The cameras had been funded through a $241,500 state law enforcement technology grant awarded to the village in 2024.
The Ithaca Common Council voted unanimously on March 4, 2026 to end the city's contract with Flock Safety. The resolution requires all Flock equipment to be disconnected and shut down within 14 days of enactment and physically removed as soon as practicable. Twenty-two license plate readers were operating inside city limits at the time of the vote.
The El Paso City Council voted 6-2 against an agenda item placed by City Reps. Chris Canales and Lily Limon that would have directed city staff not to renew any existing contracts with Flock Group Inc., leaving the police department's grant-funded ALPR program in place. Canales and Limon were the only votes to end it. Limon and Canales both raised concerns about who can access the collected data, with Limon specifically warning it could reach federal immigration authorities. The city had installed roughly 150 Flock cameras citywide beginning in summer 2025.
Oxnard Police Department (agency head) · Flock Safety
The Oxnard Police Department announced it was suspending use of its Flock Safety automated license plate readers after determining that out-of-state and federal agencies had been able to query Oxnard data without the department's knowledge or approval. OPD stated it had disabled the National Lookup feature at the start of its deployment in December 2023, but that a vendor-enabled nationwide query capability overrode the department's California-only access setting.
Coralville City Council · Flock Safety · 2 cameras
The Coralville City Council voted 3-1 to terminate its two-year, $36,000 Flock Safety contract covering two automated license plate readers and to rescind the city's ALPR usage policy. Every resident who spoke during public comment before the vote supported cancellation. Council member Mike Knudson cited an unfulfilled promise to discuss the city's purchasing policy; Rich Vogelzang was the sole no vote, arguing other communities understand the value of the readers. City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said removal would happen 'within days.'
Los Altos Hills Town Council · Flock Safety · 31 cameras
The Los Altos Hills Town Council voted unanimously to terminate the town's contract with Flock Safety. The town's official ALPR page states that all Flock cameras in town went offline effective immediately following the vote. Councilmembers cited ICE's indirect access to ALPR data through network searches by other agencies, alongside doubts about effectiveness and rising cost.
The Santa Cruz City Council voted 6-1 to terminate the city's contract with Flock Safety, becoming the first California city to end a Flock ALPR contract. City records showed state agencies accessed Santa Cruz camera data roughly 4,000 times between June and October 2025 on behalf of federal law enforcement, including ICE. Councilmember Sonja Brunner cast the sole dissenting vote.
The Bend City Council voted to switch off the city's four Flock Safety license plate reader cameras and not renew the annual contract, ending a pilot program roughly five months early. The council cited data security concerns. Residents raised objections about continuous data collection on law-abiding drivers, retention periods, who can access the data, and the risk of misuse or breach.
The Tempe City Council unanimously approved a no-cost 60-day pilot of Flock Safety license plate readers. Tempe carries the densest concentration of mapped readers in the East Valley.
Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary and Police Chief Chris Skinner · Flock Safety · 57 cameras
The City of Eugene and the Eugene Police Department announced immediate termination of the city's Flock Safety contract covering 57 license plate reader cameras. EPD said it had identified vulnerabilities and limitations in the Flock system that did not meet the standards of the department or the community. City Manager Sarah Medary described it as a joint call with Chief Chris Skinner that ultimately came down to trust.
The Olympia City Council voted to temporarily suspend the city's Flock Safety contract and halt all operations of its automated license plate reader network, on the recommendation of Interim Police Chief Shelby Parker. The action followed weeks of growing public pressure triggered by a federal immigration arrest in the city. The council directed that the city's 15 active cameras be rendered functionless using protective hoods.
The Anchorage Assembly approved a five-year, $11.8 million technology contract with Axon Enterprise for the Anchorage Police Department. Automated license plate readers were a new capability added under the contract, to be run through existing in-car dash-mounted cameras, alongside live streaming from up to 750 cameras, first-responder drones, real-time body cameras, and stun guns. Assembly Chair Christopher Constant cast the only dissenting vote.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax withdrew the automated license plate reader renewal item from the Austin City Council agenda before it could be voted on, ending the Austin Police Department's ALPR program on June 30, 2025. The program had run 40 fixed Flock Safety cameras and roughly 500 vehicle-mounted Axon cameras. A city audit covering the March 2024 to March 2025 trial found the cameras scanned about 117 million vehicles, generated over 16,000 alerts, and led to 228 arrests, but also found that data could still be shared with outside agencies including immigration enforcement despite safeguards adopted in 2023.
The Denver City Council voted 12-0 to reject a $666,000 contract extension with Flock Safety that would have continued operating more than 100 automated license plate reader cameras across the city. Mayor Mike Johnston urged the council to reject the extension and instead convene a task force to study the privacy issues residents had raised.
Virginia General Assembly; signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed HB 2724 on May 2, 2025, enacting Virginia's first statutory framework restricting law enforcement use of automated license plate readers, now codified at Va. Code § 2.2-5517 and effective July 1, 2025. The law requires ALPR data to be purged within 21 days of capture in a manner that makes it unrecoverable by either the vendor or the agency, and limits use to criminal investigations supported by reasonable suspicion, missing or endangered person investigations including human trafficking, and receipt of notifications about missing persons, outstanding warrants, human trafficking, or stolen vehicles and plates. The General Assembly rejected Youngkin's proposed amendments, which would have extended the retention limit to 30 days and stripped the bill's reenactment clause, and returned the bill as originally passed.
The Eureka City Council voted 5-0 to reject the Eureka Police Department's proposal to install roughly two dozen Flock Safety automated license plate readers at points of entry to the city. The vote followed nearly two hours of public comment in which all but one of roughly 50 speakers urged rejection. Councilmembers cited data-sharing risk to undocumented residents and questioned whether the money was well spent.
Springfield Board of Mayor and Aldermen · Flock Safety · 6 cameras
The Springfield Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted 7-0 to approve a contract with Flock Safety Inc. for six license plate readers and their installation. City officials described the intended uses as solving crimes, locating missing persons, and tracking stolen vehicles, and stated explicitly that the cameras would not be used for traffic enforcement.
The Wichita City Council unanimously approved Wichita Police Department funding to expand its Flock Safety license plate reader network and to buy gunshot detection devices. The package covered 10 readers under a five-year agreement plus 21 more under a two-year agreement, with the combined cost of the expanded technology reported at roughly $337,000.
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