FLOCK BLOCKED: Fort Wayne City Council votes not to renew contract for license plate readers
The short version: Fort Wayne's City Council declined to renew its Flock Safety contract, proving organized pushback can actually unplug a live ALPR network, as ABC21 WPTA reports.
Our Take
Credit to ABC21 WPTA for catching a story that matters way beyond Fort Wayne: a city council actually said no to renewing its Flock Safety contract. Most of the time these deals just auto-renew in the consent agenda while nobody's watching. A public vote to let the cameras lapse means residents and council members asked hard questions about cost, efficacy, and what happens to the data these systems vacuum up — and didn't like the answers.
This is the playbook other cities should be studying. Flock's pitch is always the same: cameras solve crime, renewals are routine, don't overthink it. Fort Wayne's move shows that contract renewal periods are actually the leverage point for communities that want oversight, audits, or an outright end to blanket plate tracking. It doesn't erase the surveillance infrastructure already normalized elsewhere, but it proves the infrastructure isn't inevitable once it's installed.
If you want to see how saturated your own area is with ALPR cameras, check our map, and if your city's contract is coming up for renewal, now's the time to organize — not after the vote. Head to our take-action page for tools to push your council toward the same outcome Fort Wayne just delivered.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of ABC21 WPTA, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.