Sheboygan Common Council Unanimously Votes to End Flock Security Camera Contract

Our Take

Credit to TMJ4 News for covering a story that deserves more attention than it gets: a unanimous vote. Not a split decision, not a party-line squabble — every single member of the Sheboygan Common Council agreed the Flock Safety contract wasn't worth renewing. That kind of consensus doesn't happen on controversial budget items or zoning fights. It happens when officials look at the cost, the civil liberties tradeoffs, and the thin evidence of public safety payoff, and conclude the math just doesn't work.

This matters because the Flock sales pitch relies on inertia. Cities sign a contract, cameras go up, and renewal becomes a rubber-stamp afterthought buried in a consent agenda. Sheboygan broke that pattern by actually asking whether blanket license-plate surveillance of every driver in town was worth the price tag and the privacy cost. When a council does the math in public and says no, it hands every other city council in the country a template — and a reminder that these contracts are not permanent fixtures, they're line items up for a vote.

If you want to know whether your own city or county is running Flock cameras right now, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push your local officials toward Sheboygan's outcome, our take-action page has the tools to get started.