Appleton Votes to End Its Flock Contract
The short version: Appleton's city council voted to kill its Flock Safety contract, proving organized local pushback can actually roll back ALPR surveillance.
Our Take
Credit to Civic Media for getting this on record: Appleton's council didn't just grumble about license plate readers, they voted to end the contract. That's the part that matters most in this fight. Most Flock stories are about expansion — another city signing on, another grant announcement, another "public safety" press release. This is the rarer story of a municipality actually reversing course once residents and council members started asking who's watching the watchers.
Wisconsin's Fox Valley has become a real flashpoint for DeFlock-style organizing, and Appleton's vote shows that these contracts aren't the permanent fixtures vendors like to pretend they are. Flock sells cities on convenience and crime-solving stats, but it rarely volunteers details about data retention, who else can query the system, or how easily a local dragnet plugs into a national one. When councils actually dig into that, support gets shakier fast.
If you're in Wisconsin or anywhere else wondering whether your town has quietly signed up for this kind of tracking, check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and use our take-action guide if you want to push your own council toward a vote like Appleton's.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Civic Media, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.