Cities That Ditched Flock Cameras Are Still Under Surveillance
Activists who won fights against one licence-plate tracking company are discovering their local governments simply switched to a different vendor, and the cameras stayed up.
Key points
- Longmont, Colorado voted in December to let its contract with licence-plate reader company Flock Safety expire.
- Months later, the city council approved a new vendor to install the same type of surveillance cameras on city streets.
- Automated licence-plate readers (ALPRs) photograph every passing car and log where it was at a specific time.
- Civil liberties campaigners say the vendor swap shows the fight against mass vehicle surveillance is harder than winning a single council vote.
- The pattern is repeating in other cities where Flock Safety was removed.
Activists in Longmont, Colorado thought they had won. In December, the city council voted not to renew its deal with Flock Safety, a company that sells automated licence-plate readers, known as ALPRs. These are roadside cameras that automatically photograph every car that drives past, recording its number plate, the time and the location. The data can then be used to track where a vehicle has been.
The celebration lasted only a few months.
What actually changed?
Not much, in practice. The council voted to approve a different company to install the same type of cameras on the same streets. The technology and what it does is essentially identical. The vendor's name is different; the surveillance is not.
The story was first detailed by The Guardian Technology, which found this swap-and-continue pattern in Longmont and in other cities where residents had campaigned successfully against Flock Safety contracts.
Should residents be worried about this data?
Yes, if they value privacy. Every time you drive past one of these cameras, it creates a record. Over time, those records build a detailed picture of your routines: where you work, where you worship, who you visit, which medical clinic you attend. That data is typically stored by the vendor and can be shared with other police departments or, in some cases, handed over in response to legal requests.
The cameras do not target suspects. They photograph every car, every time.
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Longmont votes not to renew Flock contract | December 2024 | Longmont, Colorado |
| Longmont approves new ALPR vendor | Early 2025 | Longmont, Colorado |
| Campaigners report same pattern in other cities | 2025 | Multiple US cities |
What can ordinary drivers do?
Practically speaking, very little stops a camera from reading your plate on a public road. What residents can do is show up to city council meetings where these contracts are voted on, ask officers and councillors directly which vendor holds the contract, how long data is kept, who can access it, and whether it can be sold or shared. Many ALPR contracts are approved quietly on consent agendas, which bundle routine items together and rarely attract public debate.
Knowing the contract exists is the first step to challenging it.
