Flock reinstalled cameras after Evanston cancelled

Our Take

Credit to Verified Privacy VPN (vp.net) for digging into what happens after a city actually says no to Flock. Evanston didn't just quietly let its contract lapse — officials deactivated 19 cameras and formally terminated the deal. On paper, that's the win privacy advocates push for. In practice, the hardware apparently stayed bolted to poles for months, reportedly reinstalled without authorization, which is the part that should bother everyone regardless of how you feel about ALPRs.

This is the pattern we keep seeing with Flock: the company treats camera removal as a paperwork problem, not a physical one. Contracts get canceled, city councils vote, press releases go out — and the actual surveillance infrastructure just keeps standing on public rights-of-way until someone forces the issue. That gap between "the contract is over" and "the camera is gone" is where a lot of unaccountable surveillance quietly persists, and it's exactly the kind of detail local reporters and city councils tend to miss.

If your town has Flock gear — active, dormant, or supposedly removed — check our camera map to see what's actually documented near you, and if you want to push back on a contract or a lingering install, our take-action page has the tools to start.