Sheriff says losing flock cameras will 'significantly impact' Dane County crime investigations

Our Take

Credit to WKOW 27 News for capturing the predictable script that plays out whenever a community reconsiders ALPR surveillance: the moment officials start weighing privacy costs against convenience, law enforcement leadership warns that public safety itself is on the line. Dane County's decision to end its Flock Safety contract is a rare and encouraging example of a local government actually listening to privacy concerns rather than rubber-stamping another renewal.

The sheriff's claim that losing these cameras will 'significantly impact' investigations deserves scrutiny, not automatic deference. Flock's own marketing leans hard on anecdotes, but anecdotes aren't evidence of indispensability, and they never account for the dragnet cost: constant logging of every driver's movements, retained and searchable, with little transparency into who accesses that data and why. Walking away from that bargain isn't anti-public-safety. It's a recognition that mass surveillance infrastructure built for the few bad actors ends up watching everyone.

Dane County's reversal shows this fight is winnable when residents push back and elected officials listen. Check our camera map to see what's still running near you, and visit our take-action page if you want your own county to have this same conversation.