Overview
- Boston has ended its Flock pilot after city officials found a Flock data‑sharing feature had been enabled in violation of the contract and instructed the vendor to disable it.
- Several jurisdictions are reviewing or canceling contracts and deactivating cameras, Dallas has notified Flock it will deactivate 321 state‑funded units, and other cities have paused cross‑jurisdictional sharing pending formal agreements.
- Flock has rolled out mandatory auditing tools, a requirement that searches include case codes, and a change in default retention from 30 days to seven days, but critics say those fixes do not resolve who controls historical data or how misuse will be enforced.
- Security researchers and hackers reported that Flock devices can capture more than plates, including people and bumper stickers, and that data can be extracted from physical cameras, raising cybersecurity and privacy concerns.
- Local leaders and state lawmakers are moving toward hearings, funding limits, and new ordinances that would require warrants, tighter retention rules, or vendor accountability as communities weigh public safety benefits against surveillance risks.