Coverage and documents

Sheriff Denita Ball said "I admit Flock has an image problem" and said crime in parks fell 36% "last year." She said her office is looking at other camera systems but lacks funding. She said MCSO cut plate-data retention from 30 days to seven and had proposed 48 hours. The county's Flock contract expires at the end of 2026.

MPD ran 486 Flock searches from Aug. 25 to Sept. 23. Some of its cameras are installed inside police vehicles. A Journal Sentinel open-records request found officers cited Flock or other plate-reading cameras in 54 criminal cases in July. MPD risk manager James Lewis said MPD and the Sheriff were among the few agencies that did not treat the issue as binary; he said MPD's understanding is that no warrant is required.

MPD confirmed it will renew its Flock contract. Two aldermen propose that the Finance and Personnel Committee approve plate-reader contracts.

About 30 of some 80 speakers at the Oct. 5 budget hearing asked the city to cut ties with Flock Safety. The mayor defended the restrictions, and Council President José Pérez said a majority of the 15-member council wants it reined in further. The contract goes through the single/sole-source process that exempts it from committee approval. Dimitrijevic's draft charter amendment requiring Finance and Personnel approval of ALPR contracts was submitted Oct. 6; the committee votes on budget amendments Oct. 29 and the council adopts Nov. 6.

An Oct. 6 email from Police Budget Director Laura Engan said MPD "intends to renew our contract with Flock at the appropriate time." The current contract ends in January. The Dimitrijevic/Brower charter ordinance would require Finance and Personnel approval of any ALPR contract; a charter change needs two-thirds of the council and a 60-day waiting period.

Thursday 10/1 the Milwaukee County Board passed Sup. Justin Bielinski's resolution 16-0 (Martinez and Martin absent) directing Parks to 'remove all Flock Safety cameras from county parkland', ALPR and Condor alike; Sup. Wasserman's committee amendment lets MCSO replace them with 'conventional video surveillance cameras operating on the county's network'. 'There are currently 42 Flock cameras located in 11 county parks', MCSO running 25 ALPR and six Condor. 'There are also six other Flock cameras on county roads and equipment operated by municipal police departments.' The article does not say whether the resolution reaches those six, or name their operators. County Executive Crowley 'did not include funding for Flock in his 2027 budget proposal, instead moving the money to a program providing legal aid for people facing eviction' (about $140,000, Urban Milwaukee 10/1). WTMJ 10/1: removal by the end of the year.

Released 10/2 as identical Senate and House drafts with blank bill numbers; formal introduction not confirmed (congress.gov blocked fetches 10/4). Sec. 3(a): no federal agency or person acting for the federal government may 'acquire, possess, access, or use' an ALPR or captured plate data, unless an Act of Congress authorizes it with particularity (including retention of no more than 48 hours). Sec. 4: from the next fiscal year, no DOJ, DOT, HHS, HUD or DHS assistance to a state or local government unless it has a law or binding policy prohibiting ALPR use. Sec. 5: no federal funds for ALPR purchase, operation, data access or contracts. Suppression and a private right of action. The text names no specific grant program, the DEA's National License Plate Reader Program or HIDTA. UPI 10/2 notes Rep. Massie's competing Flock-Off Act.

A 48-page search warrant filed Sept. 30 shows Greendale police investigating the theft of $594,782 in jewelry from Southridge Mall's Macy's and JCPenney in April. Investigators used Flock cameras to track the vehicles and trace registered owners and rental information. It confirms Greendale PD's investigative use of the Flock network; whose cameras were searched is not stated.

Opinion and Order (ECF 62, 10/1/2026, Judge Sara E. Hill) granting the motion to suppress. A Tulsa County deputy who also served as a DEA task force officer ran Flock and VehicleManager searches of about a month of the car's location history ('more than fifty sightings across multiple states') because the plate was from California. Held: the search 'intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of her physical movements' and, without a warrant or probable cause, violated the Fourth Amendment (Carpenter; Chatrie, 2026). The court calls ALPR networks 'a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance.' Note: this is an alternative ground; the court first suppressed because the stop was unlawfully extended. Criminal, district-level, not binding in Wisconsin. The court acknowledges 'nearly every court examining the issue to date has determined that ALPR technology use is not a search'. Separately (not cited in Kyle), Schmidt v. City of Norfolk (E.D. Va., civil s.1983, summary judgment for the City 1/27/2026) is the leading ruling the other way. Reported by CBS12 and TechCrunch 10/3.

Crowley's $1.5 billion recommended 2027 budget redirects funding that would have gone to Flock cameras to Eviction Free MKE. The County Board is set to vote on the budget Nov. 5. Absent a board amendment, the county funds no Flock contract in 2027.

The Parks and Culture Committee 'approved a resolution Tuesday [9/29] directing the removal of fixed Flock Condor and automated license plate reader cameras from county park property by the end of the year.' Author Sup. Justin Bielinski. Urban Milwaukee and TMJ4 report the committee vote as unanimous; TMJ4 says MCSO may explore replacement 'closed-loop' cameras without plate tracking or facial recognition, and that MCSO has limited access to 47 users and ended outside-agency sharing.

Jason Koebler. Local agencies send ALPR data (Flock, Axon, ELSAG, Vigilant) to regional HIDTA intelligence centers under MOUs or grant conditions, and on to the DEA's National License Plate Reader Program; the DEA's December 2024 Privacy Impact Assessment says contributing agencies 'transmit their LPR data to servers maintained by regional hubs pursuant to their individual MOUs'. Georgia requires HIDTA MOUs for cameras in state DOT right-of-way; the Houston HIDTA runs a national login portal. No Wisconsin mention. For Oak Creek: the city is inside the Milwaukee HIDTA, and 'Indiana HIDTA (LaPorte County SO)' is on the Department's own Flock sharing list with search enabled. Records lead in reference/2026-09-30-hidta-records-lead.md.

There are 42 Flock cameras in 11 county parks, mostly operated by MCSO: 25 ALPR cameras and six Condor cameras without ALPR. Six more are on county roads and equipment operated by municipal police. MCSO Inspector Patricia Carlson put the 2026 Flock contract at approximately $140,000. MCSO said it had stopped sharing data with other agencies, cut retention to seven days, and credited ALPR with helping in 10 homicides, 22 sexual assaults and recovery of more than 80 stolen vehicles.

The Parks and Culture Committee unanimously advanced the resolution to end Flock and other ALPR cameras at 11 county parks. Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman's amendment authorizes replacement with conventional cameras from the county's existing vendor, Johnson Controls International. Replacements may not have license plate reading or facial recognition. The Sheriff's Office estimated replacement at about $140,000 and claimed a 43% decline in serious crime in camera parks from 2023 to 2026; removal must be reported by December 2026.

According to Supervisor Justin Bielinski's resolution, the Sheriff's Office operates nine fixed Flock Condor video cameras and 25 fixed plate-reading cameras on county parkland and lakefront sites. Mobile plate-reading units are installed in 66 of the Sheriff's Office's 78 squad cars. The Parks Department had supported ALPR, including for illegal dumping. The Sheriff's Office stopped Flock statewide and nationwide lookups in early September.

In a Facebook post, the Wauwatosa Police Department said a Flock alert on a suspect's vehicle helped officers find and arrest a man since charged with repeated first-degree sexual assault of a child. The department acknowledged community questions and called Flock "one investigative tool." Wauwatosa is not part of the WILL lawsuit against Waukesha County municipalities. This is a public defense of Wauwatosa's continuing Flock program.

Sen. Josh Hawley's subcommittee, 9/23 2:30 PM, Dirksen 562. Witnesses: Lindsey Isaacs (Palm Coast, FL driver jailed for nearly two weeks after a Flock camera wrongly placed her car at a fatal crash), Alasdair Whitney (Institute for Justice), Sheriff Ross Teeple (Pinal County, AZ), cybersecurity engineer Benn Jordan, and Chad Marlow (ACLU). Hawley's 9/18 release says he invited the CEOs of Flock (Garrett Langley), Axon (Rick Smith), Motorola Solutions (Greg Brown) and Verkada (Filip Kaliszan); WRAL (9/23) reports 'None of them attended this hearing.' Invited and absent; no source read says why.

At a Marquette Law School panel, MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough confirmed MPD contracts with three ALPR vendors. She said MPD has cut off direct access by other agencies, limited access to supervisors and shortened image retention to seven days. She said the earlier sharing could have let federal agencies including ICE obtain MPD data, and "There are side doors everywhere."

Undated village FAQ, read 9/22 after the 'Everything Greendale' Facebook page shared it. Six cameras (four from August 2023, six since 2024). Searches limited to supervisors, detectives and dispatchers. Shares only with Wisconsin agencies, about 195 of them; nationwide and federal sharing disabled ('including ... ICE'). 30-day retention, with a planned move to Flock's seven-day search limit. Keeps an audit trail. Lists a dozen case examples. Gives no cost, contract or approval details and links no transparency portal. The contrast with Oak Creek, whose account shares with 1,357 agencies including about 1,073 outside Wisconsin and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and which has published nothing comparable, is direct.

Rebecca Klopf. WILL attorney Dan Lennington, counsel in the Waukesha County warrant suit: 'Police share technology all the time and there is nothing that would stop the Oconomowoc Police Department from calling up the Delafield Police Department to search their database', and 'Flock doesn't tell you, "You can't let others search your database."' Municipalities ending their contracts are asking to be removed from the suit; he says ending a contract is not enough. The School District of Oconomowoc is also ending its contract; Waukesha and Mukwonago phase out by year's end. For Oak Creek: a Council vote to cancel would not by itself stop OCPD searching neighbours' networks, or neighbours searching Oak Creek's, without a written policy saying so.

Alds. Marina Dimitrijevic and Alex Brower called for MPD to stop using Flock and said they would pursue a charter change or budget amendments. Chief Norman said the contract expires January 2027 and he is "exploring all the options." MPD officials said they did not readily know whether ICE or other federal agencies had access when the cameras were acquired in 2022. They said access was Wisconsin-only in the months before the August overhaul.

At the Sept. 17 Fire and Police Commission meeting, MPD said it had shared Flock data with at least 230, and possibly as many as 300, Wisconsin agencies (plus the Chicago Police Department) before locking it down Sept. 1. MPD now has access to ALPR data from 836 jurisdictions while sharing its own with none. Whether federal or out-of-state agencies reached MPD data through other agencies is unknown.

Three council votes on Tuesday 9/15 (TMJ4 and Racine County Eye give the 15th), three different actions. Waukesha: the Common Council voted not to appropriate funds for Flock beyond 2026, so the program ends after this year; Chief Dan Thompson: 'we believe it is appropriate to move forward in a manner that reflects our values and preserves the trust our community places in us.' Oconomowoc: the Common Council cancelled the contract 5-2 (six cameras, $18,000 a year per Hoodline 9/10). Racine: termination in 30 days on a tie broken by the mayor (separate entry). TMJ4 mentions a lawsuit over Flock use by 11 Waukesha County municipalities and the county, not yet read. All three cities fall inside the WisDOT Southeast Region permit-list request (sent 9/11).

Denise Lockwood. On 9/15 the City of Racine's Common Council split 7-7 on Ald. Frazier's amendment to terminate in 30 days; Mayor Cory Mason broke the tie ('I am glad that we are going to terminate this contract'), so the contract ends about 10/15/2026, with a 30-day window for the Department to retain data for open investigations. Mason had called for ending it 'now' in his State of the City six days earlier. This is the City; the Racine County Sheriff's exit (9/4) is a separate agency.

Rep. Calvin Callahan, chair of the Assembly Committee on Consumer Protection: 'Come January, I intend to use my power as Chairman of the Consumer Protection Committee to start asking some serious questions' and 'If these cameras cannot operate with warrants, judicial oversight, strict limits on data retention and real accountability, then they have no business operating in Wisconsin.' The reporter adds that he is willing to examine whether there is a narrowly tailored path for serious criminal investigations. (Title taken from the URL slug.) The first named legislative venue after AG Kaul's 9/8 call for a state law. January is the 2027-28 session: his term ends 1/4/2027, he is running for re-election (WSAW, 4/14/2026), and chairs are reappointed when the session opens.

The UWM Police Department is discontinuing Flock Safety cameras and has directed Flock to remove them; they are not operational in the interim. The DeFlock map shows 18 cameras on the East Side campus and two in the lot north of E. Capitol Drive. UWM's separate parking-garage plate readers stay. UWM says they connect to nothing outside Transportation Services and only read plates at entrances and exits. No reason was given.

Destiny DeVooght. WILL filed 'late Wednesday night' (9/9) in Waukesha County court (FOX6, 9/10) for NoCams Muskego, Citizens Defending Liberty and homeowner Donavan Haidinger against Waukesha County and 11 municipalities: the cities of Muskego, Oconomowoc, New Berlin, Waukesha, Delafield and Brookfield and the villages of Mukwonago, Hartland, Menomonee Falls, Elm Grove and Pewaukee. Fourth Amendment claim; the relief sought is a warrant before police search the Flock location database. Lennington to FOX6: 'if police want to use very powerful surveillance technology – they need to get a warrant.' Oak Creek is not a party, but all twelve defendants' agencies appear on OCPD's 'Flock Shared PDs' list.

UWM police are ending Flock use; the cameras are non-operational pending removal. The university's parking-garage plate readers are not affected.

The County's Flock contract 'expires at the end of the year' and Crowley does not plan to fund another. Key line for the MCDOT requests: 'Milwaukee County has permitted 42 cameras on county parkland; another six cameras are set up on county roads and equipment, but they are being used by local municipal police departments and permitted by the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation, according to Crowley's office.' No municipality is named.

Unanimous vote not to renew; 15 cameras stay bagged until Flock retrieves them; contract ends 12/31/2026. In March, Flock offered the city up to five years of anonymized driving-pattern and speeding data. Chief Zempel: discontinuing 'immediately' protects 'the trusting relationship between our police department and community.'

Attorney General Josh Kaul asked the Legislature for a uniform state ALPR law: restrict data sales to private companies, safeguards for non-government access, statewide consistency because cameras track across municipal lines. He supports the technology for cases such as missing children.

Countywide joint suspension of fixed ALPRs: information 'may become subject to the laws, policies, public records decisions, and practices of agencies and jurisdictions outside local agencies' control.' Agencies will monitor changes in state law and data-sharing practice.

Flock reported $36,000 in each of three reporting periods (2025 and H1 2026) on ALPR grant bills sponsored by Sens. James and Wanggaard and 14 Assembly Republicans; the bills failed in 2025. Chiefs of Police Association and League of Municipalities for, ACLU-WI against.

Fond du Lac County and Winnebago County ceased use after search data, including active investigations, was disclosed by out-of-state agencies under their records laws ('those decisions were made without our knowledge or consent'); Stevens Point covered all 10 city cameras.

Racine County Sheriff Schmaling: Flock 'generates a separate data set from information collected by its cameras and markets that dataset to other government and private customers'; 'This is not what we agreed to, and it is not what the public was led to believe'; he had expected a 30-day retention period. Fond du Lac: search data 'including records tied to active investigations, was disclosed to the public by law enforcement agencies in other states.' Both effective immediately.

Racine County Sheriff and five Fond du Lac County agencies (sheriff, Fond du Lac, North Fond du Lac, Waupun, Ripon) end Flock immediately; Kenosha asks its council to terminate and moves to Axon; Sheboygan's trigger was Flock's March sales email offering five years of traffic data.

Fond du Lac Sheriff, Stevens Point and Winnebago County Sheriff discontinued the same day, citing Flock 'releasing data in bulk in response to FOIA requests in other states'; 'once our data leaves our respective agencies, we cannot guarantee how it's handled elsewhere.' Milwaukee chose oversight over exit.

MPD and the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office both recently cut data retention to seven days. MPD officers must attach a case number and reason, but the reason can be as general as "investigation." MPD stopped sharing camera data with other local and federal agencies, but authorized users may still assist other Wisconsin agencies. MPD had no structured audit before the misuse cases and now audits monthly.

MPD and the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office launched public Flock transparency portals; WISN gives the Sheriff's portal as transparency.flocksafety.com/milwaukee-county-wi-so. That address returned 'Page not found' when checked on 10/10/2026.

Under 2023 Wisconsin Act 12 the chief controls MPD policy. The council can modify it with 10 of 15 votes. Council members wanted a seven-day retention period for routine plate data and a fully external audit, and Dimitrijevic filed a file to preserve the council's ability to pursue SOP changes. The article reports the chief approved the Flock agreements through a commodity-product waiver that bypassed council review; outside agencies can no longer directly search the city's 31 cameras.

Republican governor candidate Tom Tiffany said he would bar municipalities from using state shared revenue to buy Flock cameras until a task force he would create on day one finishes its review. The restriction would require legislative approval. This is a statewide proposal that would bear on every Milwaukee County municipality's ALPR funding.

Independent security researcher's 160-page paper (dated 8/21 and 9/2/2026, CC BY 4.0). He reports four Flock vulnerabilities disclosed to Flock 6/11-12/5/2025, including a hardcoded production ArcGIS key and a service that issued production mapping credentials without login. He says that on 12/14/2025 he used the unremediated path to export 335,701 device and deployment records, which Flock has never publicly acknowledged while saying it has 'never been hacked'. A modeled route study places cameras on commute roads around 22 military and federal sites (none in Wisconsin). The author's own account throughout; the export's legal status is unresolved. For Oak Creek: Flock's CEO emailed Chief Stecker 'Flock has never been hacked. Ever.' on 12/8/2025, six days before the export on the author's timeline. See reference/2026-09-29-never-hacked-paper-review.md.

Schulte v. Flock Safety, N.D. Georgia, filed 8/25/2026: putative class of everyone whose plate a Flock camera scanned since 1/1/2024; invasion of privacy, officer stalking, misreads causing wrongful stops; punitive damages sought.

Answering the 9/1 questions, MPD said the Aug. 31 restrictions cover all three of its plate-reader systems, not only Flock: 39 Genetec readers and Axon readers in 80 squads (as of June).

County Executive Crowley directed County departments and the Sheriff to limit Flock use on county property; Corporation Counsel and IMSD to 'develop binding standards' (uses, retention, access); no federal immigration use without a judicial warrant, independent audits, consequences for misuse; municipal leaders asked to 'reevaluate their own use of the technology and adopt policy frameworks modeled on the county's approach'. 'Milwaukee County's Flock system includes 42 cameras, and six municipal cameras are mounted on county-owned poles.' The two-page directive itself (dated 9/1/2026, read 10/4) has no camera counts; it adds a commitment to a public-facing Flock portal and calls on municipalities to 'reevaluate their own use of this technology'.

As of June, MPD had 35 Flock cameras, 39 Genetec cameras and Axon readers in 80 patrol vehicles. The mayor's office would not say whether the Aug. 31 Flock limits (supervisor-only, Part I crimes, no outside agencies) apply to Genetec or Axon, or will be written into policy. It referred those questions to MPD, which did not respond. This is the clearest reporting that MPD runs three ALPR vendors.

Crowley's memo said 42 Flock cameras are permitted on county parkland and six more on county roads and equipment. The six are used by municipal police and permitted by MCDOT. The county's Information Management Services Division (IMSD) holds the county's Flock contract, Flock owns the cameras, and the Sheriff's Office has access to the data. Sheriff Ball announced: retention cut from 30 to seven days, alerts limited to stolen vehicles, violent crime and missing persons, no out-of-state sharing or statewide/nationwide searches, required case numbers and justification, and bans on immigration and reproductive-health searches.

Supervisors-only access; use limited to Part 1 crimes, critical missing persons, drug-trafficking organizations and abductions; MPD searches limited to Milwaukee's own cameras; public usage dashboard; Fire and Police Commission audit. Cites Officer Ayala (probation) and Officer Chapman (felony charges).

The mayor's restrictions limit MPD Flock access to supervisors and searches to Part I crimes, critical missing persons, abductions and drug-trafficking organizations, end outside-agency access, and require audits every six months. The article counts 31 fixed cameras and reports that 12 of 15 aldermen had signed an Aug. 25 letter demanding Flock safeguards.

Chief Zempel and the city administrator asked the council to terminate after the 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.' Mayor Sorenson: 'an erosion of trust from Flock itself and how they were using our data.' 15 cameras since 2024.

Brookfield police stopped Amber Newell at gunpoint on I-94 on Aug. 6 after a Flock camera flagged her car for a Milwaukee homicide. MPD said "MPD staff inadvertently did not remove a vehicle alert" (an MPD hotlist error). Her attorney said she planned a notice of claim against the city, and City Attorney Evan Goyke declined comment citing likely litigation.

Green Bay PD released 'the first annual Flock audit for 2025,' found no evidence of misuse, and suspended sharing. A Wisconsin department reviewing a full calendar year of its own search history.

MPD opened an internal investigation into an officer for a single "outlying use" of Flock that it believes is not criminal. This is the third department member investigated. MPD said Aug. 18 it was discussing with Flock Safety shortening its retention period from 30 days to seven.

MPD then kept Flock data 30 days and audited monthly. It had access to at least 35 Flock cameras, and in April searched 1,619 full or partial plates, about 6,300 searches. MPD also has Axon plate-reading technology on at least 80 squad vehicles and 39 additional cameras from Genetec (spelled "Gentech"). This was MPD's response pending Flock's Aug. 13 recommendations, including a 7-day retention period.

'Flock customers own their data from collection through deletion.' 'Search activity is logged in audit trails available to customers.' Default LPR retention is now 7 days, configurable. Per Poynter's account of the same announcement: a mandatory criminal case number on every search from January 1, 2027; automated flagging of abnormal search patterns; per-agency limits on the investigation types shared data may support.

'If you are a Flock customer looking to preserve or request bulk data (such as audit logs for your organization for a period greater than one year) … any requests should be submitted through Kodex.' Fulfilment within 14 calendar days; expedited 'to meet any FOIA/PRA deadlines.' Audit logs older than a year exist and have a defined retrieval path.

Eagle Sports Range in Cudahy took down every Flock camera on its parking lot after a viral video showed them capturing plates of arriving vehicles. The range said it tried to remove them in February but Flock said it was contractually obligated to keep them. This is a private ALPR deployment in the county; Cudahy's Council approved a 2023 MOU giving its police access to the range's Flock cameras (Council packets 10/17 and 11/7/2023).

Viral video attributed to 'Oak Creek.' The range is Eagle Sports Range, 2525 E. Layton Ave, Cudahy. No OCPD camera is at that location per the Department's deployment tracker; the operator was never verified. Do not repeat the Oak Creek attribution.

'Every single search conducted in the Flock LPR system is saved in an audit report' permanently across all included agencies' records. Describes the case-number option, proactive auditing alerts and the Illinois attestation workflow. Originally June 2025, updated July 2026.

Roll of communities that ended or declined Flock by mid-July: Dane County (32-1 defund), Verona, Oshkosh, Monona, Fitchburg, Appleton, Sturgeon Bay, UW–Madison PD.

Judge Kristela L. Cervera sentenced Josue Ayala to 12 months' probation and a $500 fine. He had pleaded guilty June 11 to attempted misconduct in public office; he resigned from MPD on March 4. Two restraining orders were granted against him June 24. The paper restated that MPD has 31 Flock cameras and has used the system since 2022.

Internal Affairs detective Tehrangi Chapman, 51, was charged with misconduct in public office and misuse of a GPS device. He had been assigned in December 2025 to investigate Ayala. An MPD audit found he searched the complainant's plate 17 times between Jan. 10, 2024 and Jan. 7, 2025, and another plate three times in January 2025. He entered the reasons "test" and "training"; he had been suspended since March 13.

MPD risk manager James Lewis said access is now granted on an "as needed basis" through the chain of command, and audits flag outliers such as repeat searches or missing case numbers. MPD then shared its Flock network with state partners but not federal agencies, and listed 24 example uses. The article reports Wauwatosa officers used Flock and a drone to track a robbery suspect in May. It recounts Sheriff Ball and Chief Deputy Barkow saying in December that Flock is not tracking.

At the May 7 Fire and Police Commission meeting, MPD disclosed a second employee under investigation for possible Flock misuse. Access had been cut from 370 officers to 100. Risk manager James Lewis said 70 audit cases were flagged and two users were removed after an April audit. MPD said it operates 31 non-video cameras citywide, all pointed at roadways.

MPD released a sample of its April Flock audit showing 24 "outlier uses," which are possible red flags rather than confirmed misuse. Flagged plates included a wanted homicide suspect, a narcotics trafficking suspect and an abduction vehicle. MPD produces the audit monthly. A Flock spokesperson said the company works with 220 Wisconsin agencies and has had fewer than 15 misuse cases among 140,000 users.

Flock's earlier terms said 'Flock does not own and shall not sell Customer Data'; that sentence is gone. Current terms give Flock 'the exclusive right to determine and control the method, timing, format, and medium' of customer access to data, plus a perpetual license. Check the City's 2023 MSA for the equivalent clauses.

Whitefish Bay Police confirmed its Flock Safety camera on Hampton Avenue near Estabrook Park was found with its lens spray-painted gold. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office reported a Flock camera spray-painted about two weeks earlier in an undisclosed county park; MPD said none of its cameras were vandalized. TMJ4 cited a watchdog website that found more than 200 Flock cameras across Milwaukee County. This is the only press confirmation found that Whitefish Bay PD operates a Flock camera.

Council President José Pérez and Alds. Marina Dimitrijevic, Alex Brower and Sharlen Moore sent the Fire and Police Commission a three-page letter. It calls Flock misuse a "systemic oversight gap rather than an isolated failure" and asks who audits searches and who oversees compliance. The article also notes West Allis PD, the state's top user of the "." search reason, only said its officers are properly trained. It reports Greenfield Police Chief Jay Johnson faces felony misconduct charges over a department pole camera installed at his home.

MPD said district officers lost access to Flock's database while the department re-evaluates who needs it. For now only officers in "sensitive positions" in the Criminal Investigation Bureau can use it, in emergency cases. Chief Jeffrey Norman had said about 600 officers had access to the system, which includes 31 cameras across Milwaukee. Future users must sign a use agreement.

Officer Josue Ayala was charged with attempted misconduct in public office. He is accused of searching a dating partner's plate more than 120 times and the partner's ex 55 times, as a negotiated issuance requiring his resignation. The misuse surfaced when a driver found the searches on haveibeenflocked.com; an audit of March 26 to May 26, 2025 confirmed 55 and 124 searches. The paper reported MPD had used Flock since 2022, with 31 cameras and a $182,900 contract active through January 2027.

This letter gives the waiver history of MPD's Flock contract E21123, all handled without Finance and Personnel approval. The original contract was $52,500 (presented 07/09/2025). Amendment 1 added six cameras and extended the term to 1/26/2027, bringing it to $89,400. Amendment 2 added three cameras, bringing it to $100,400. Pending Amendment 3 adds $82,500 for a total of $182,900, for renewal of licenses for "MPD's thirty-one (31) City-funded Flock cameras." The ACLU asked the committee to stop sole-source "proprietary" waivers for surveillance contracts.

At the County Board's Judiciary committee, Chief Deputy Brian Barkow listed the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office camera systems. They include the Genetec video platform, security cameras, in-car cameras, camera trailers, body cameras and Flock plate-reading cameras. Barkow and Sheriff Denita Ball said calling Flock "tracking" is a misrepresentation. The office sought Biometrica facial recognition for booking cameras and said none of its systems use facial recognition.

Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) circulated co-sponsorship memos for a "Freedom From Fear" bill package. It would ban automatic license plate readers, prohibit facial recognition, and bar police from buying personal data without a warrant. This is the origin of the state ALPR-ban proposal that would apply to every Milwaukee County agency. Its later bill number and status were not confirmed in the reporting read.

Flock's guidance to its customers on records requests. Audit logs 'are accessed via your agency's Flock admin dashboard on the Insights tab … Customers may download these logs in the user interface as spreadsheets in 31-day increments. It is recommended that CSMs assist the customers with the downloads when feasible for timeframes larger than six months.' Best practices: 'Export data using built-in tools (e.g., audit logs from the Flock admin portal; this is generally not considered creating a new record.)' Also coaches agencies to negotiate narrower timeframes and upfront fees. Copy saved in reference/.

Using network audit data obtained from the Wauwatosa Police Department, the Examiner found at least 221 Wisconsin agencies used Flock from Jan. 1 to May 31, 2025. Nearly 40,000 searches by MPD/STAC appeared in Wauwatosa's audit, the most of any agency. West Allis made nearly 12,000 searches, and Wauwatosa was fifth with 10,372, more than 1,900 of them logged only as "investigation." West Allis led the state in entering just "." as the search reason, just over 1,200 times; MPD used "investigation" over 1,000 times.

Arrowhead Union High School District considered three Flock cameras at $9,000 a year, run through the Waukesha County Sheriff's contract. Mequon-Thiensville has run license plate reader software on over 20 existing cameras since 2024-25, for about $10,500, and keeps data at least 45 days. A spot check found no other suburban districts using the technology. The paper said "It's uncertain whether Milwaukee Public Schools uses the cameras."

A proposed expansion would add three Flock cameras in Milwaukee business districts; the Finance and Personnel Committee held it on May 29. The South 27th Street Business District, Gateway to Milwaukee and the Crisol Corridor donated funds for two years of the cameras. Police told the Journal Sentinel Milwaukee had 31 Flock cameras in use and began using them in 2022. The ACLU of Wisconsin urged a CCOPS ordinance.

Danville, Ill. audit data shows that MPD's Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC) ran three searches through Danville's Flock network, logged as "HSI investigation" and "HSI vehicle loader." One search on July 15, 2024 reached 4,893 networks, and two in October reached 5,425; MPD said the case was criminal (HIDTA), not immigration. At a May 29 Finance and Personnel hearing on adding three business-district-funded Flock cameras, Ald. Scott Spiker said parking checkers already use ALPRs for night parking and zoning enforcement. The committee voted 4-1 to hold the file over a "non-standard" contract provision.

Community organizations asked the Milwaukee Common Council to adopt a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance. It would require public information, a public hearing and council approval before funding, acquiring or using new and existing surveillance technology. It would also require an annual report covering data sharing and geographic deployment. The letter says 26 cities have such ordinances. Milwaukee has not adopted one; MPD's ALPR contracts have not gone through such a process.

West Allis, Greenfield and Oak Creek released their Flock camera locations to FOX6. Franklin, Wauwatosa and Milwaukee withheld them; Wauwatosa cited "negligible public interest" in camera locations. Milwaukee had 29 Flock cameras plus 39 Genetec license plate readers that the department said do not feed Flock's shared database. This is the earliest press source for MPD's second ALPR vendor.

FOX6 counted at least 219 Flock cameras scanning traffic in the Milwaukee area, with plans for nearly a hundred more. It reported that police lease the cameras for $2,500 to $3,000 per camera per year. West Allis had 21 Flock cameras and did not regularly audit its searches. Milwaukee and Franklin withheld current and proposed camera locations.

Chief David Stecker's report, submitted by City Administrator Andrew Vickers, asked the Common Council to review a Flock Group Inc. agreement. It gave Oak Creek PD access to Flock's plate database at "no costs to the city." A three-phase plan followed: database access, then local businesses installing their own Flock devices, then Flock devices in "higher crime" areas. The report notes at least one Oak Creek homeowners' association already used similar technology, and that Flock keeps data 30 days. This is the council item that started Oak Creek's Flock program; the vote result is not reported.

The Havenwoods Business Improvement District on Milwaukee's far north side leased 14 Flock Safety cameras with private funds. The board chair said the BID owns the data. The data is shared with the Milwaukee Police Department and kept in the cloud for 30 days. Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and DA John Chisholm welcomed the cameras. This is the founding source for privately funded Flock cameras that feed MPD.

Milwaukee's Department of Public Works implemented a "License Plate Recognition" (LPR) system on Jan. 1. The camera is mounted on parking enforcement officers' jeeps. It photographs plates, shows a vehicle's status and whether it has an overnight parking pass. The vendor and data retention are not stated. This is the main press source for a non-police City of Milwaukee ALPR program that is separate from MPD's Flock, Genetec and Axon systems.