Green Bay police chief defends use of Flock cameras

Our Take

WBAY TV-2 in Green Bay gives Chief Chris Davis a friendly platform to defend his department's Flock Safety cameras, right as other communities are canceling their contracts outright. That contrast is the real story here, even if the segment doesn't dwell on it. When police chiefs have to go on the local news to reassure the public, it's usually because residents are asking hard questions the department would rather answer on its own terms.

"Privacy protections" is doing a lot of work in that chyron. In our experience covering these systems, the policies departments point to are often internal, unaudited, and changeable at will — a far cry from the binding legal limits that would actually constrain how long plate data is kept, who can query it, and whether it gets shared with federal agencies or sold down the line. A policy a chief can rewrite is not the same as a right residents can enforce.

Green Bay isn't unique — these cameras are spreading block by block across the country, often without a public vote. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your routes, and if you want to push back on a deployment near you, our take-action guide walks through how to get answers from your city council before the contract is already signed.