It appears that Flock cameras may be getting scrapped in the City of Sheboygan.
In a joint statement, City Administrator Casey Bradley and Chief of Police Kurt Zempel have announced that they will be asking the Common Council to terminate the City’s contract with Flock Safety at the next council meeting on September 8th.
Flock Safety is a for-profit company that is contracted by municipalities to conduct surveillance on roads and many other locations.
In Sheboygan, Flock’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras have been used since 2024 and track the license plates of every vehicle that passes by them.
While labeled as license plate readers, newer Flock ALPR systems also utilize artificial intelligence to collect and extract additional information such as a vehicle’s make, model, color, distinctive features, and detailed location, time, and date information, regardless of whether that vehicle was involved in any sort of criminal activity or not.
That information can then be viewed by any municipality in the country with a Flock contract without a warrant or probable cause that a crime has been committed.
The statement continued to say, “In July, the Sheboygan Police Department became aware of actions by Flock Safety believed to be inconsistent with the terms and expectations of the City’s contract and which undermine trust in the services provided. The Police Department confirmed the circumstances and will therefore ask the Common Council to terminate the contract.”
SeehaferNews.com reached out to the City Administrator’s Office for clarification on what these actions by Flock were, but they chose not to provide further details.
As of this week, City staff have begun covering up the 15 Flock cameras used in Sheboygan while officials work through the termination process.
To close, the Chief of Police and City Administrator noted, “Any system that involves access to powerful technology or sensitive information, strong internal controls and community trust are vital. That trust must extend to the partners who provide those services… we believe that ending the relationship with Flock Safety is necessary at this time.”
This comes as Flock Safety and its industry counterparts have recently come under vast scrutiny nationwide for infringing on Americans’ Fourth Amendment Rights, creating a nationwide surveillance network, and due to law enforcement officers across the country abusing the technology.
There is an area example of this, as former Menasha Police Officer Cristian Morales is serving jail time for using Flock camera data to stalk his ex-girlfriend.
Those wanting to learn more about the matter will have to attend the Common Council meeting set for September 8th.
