Joint Meeting of the Legal Affairs & Public Services Committees - Flock Cameras/LPRs - 04/21/2026
The short version: Beverly's city council heard the standard Flock sales pitch alongside real public pushback on audits, data sharing, and vendor alternatives — this is how local fights get won or lost.
Our Take
Credit to BevCam Government for posting the full joint committee meeting, because this is exactly the kind of municipal footage that rarely gets attention outside the town it happens in — yet it's where the actual decisions about surveillance infrastructure get made. Beverly's police department walked councilors through the usual Flock Safety talking points: cameras help solve crimes, data access is controlled, privacy is protected. We've heard this pitch in dozens of towns now, and it always sounds reasonable in the room. What matters is what happens after the pitch.
The good news here is that residents showed up and pushed back on the parts that actually count: who can access the data, whether other agencies get to query Beverly's network, what an independent audit would even look like, and whether cheaper or less invasive vendor alternatives were seriously considered. Those are the right questions. Too many councils rubber-stamp these contracts after a single vendor-friendly presentation, without ever demanding a real audit trail or asking what happens when a neighboring department, ICE, or a state fusion center comes knocking for access.
If Beverly moves forward, the fight isn't over — it shifts to policy language, retention limits, and who gets to see the audit logs. That's the pattern everywhere Flock expands. If you want to see whether these cameras have already landed in your own town, check our map, and if you want to push back before your council votes, our take-action page has the playbook other residents have already used.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of BevCam Government, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.