Junction City Police requesting approval for 90-day Flock camera trial
The short version: Junction City PD wants an eight-camera, 90-day Flock 'trial' — a familiar pitch that rarely stays temporary once the data starts flowing.
Our Take
KEZI 9's report on Junction City's proposed 90-day Flock Safety trial is worth watching because the word "trial" is doing a lot of work here. In our experience tracking these rollouts, 90-day pilots are a sales tactic, not a genuine off-ramp. Once a department has months of plate-read data, hit alerts, and a vendor relationship, the political and bureaucratic momentum to make it permanent is enormous. Councils rarely claw back a system once officers get used to it.
What's missing from most of these pitches, including the one Junction City PD is apparently making, is any serious public conversation about retention periods, who else can query the data beyond local police, and whether this small city really needs eight ALPR cameras scanning every car that passes through. Flock's own audit logs across the country have repeatedly shown officers running plates for personal reasons, out-of-state agencies pulling data with no local oversight, and 'trial' systems quietly becoming permanent fixtures of the local budget. Thanks to KEZI 9 for putting this on the record before the council vote.
If you live in or near Junction City, now is the moment to push for real answers, not after the cameras go up. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed nearby, and visit our take-action page for a plan to show up at the council meeting and ask the hard questions before this 'trial' becomes permanent surveillance infrastructure.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KEZI 9, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.