Fort Collins Cancels Flock Contract in 6 to 1 Vote

Our Take

Credit to Verified Privacy VPN (vp.net) for flagging this one: Fort Collins didn't just let a Flock Safety contract quietly lapse, the city council voted it down 6 to 1, and apparently didn't have to drag the police department kicking and screaming to get there. That combination — decisive numbers and buy-in from the agency that actually used the cameras — is what makes this story stand out from the usual pattern of communities finding out about ALPR deployments after the fact.

Most towns don't get a clean up-or-down vote on these systems. Flock contracts tend to auto-renew, get bundled into budget consent agendas, or get sold to councils as a done deal before residents even know the cameras went up. When a city reverses course this cleanly, it's proof that elected bodies can still claw back control over surveillance infrastructure once they start asking where the data goes, who can query it, and what it's actually bought in terms of safety versus liability.

Every one of these votes is a data point for the next city council meeting somewhere else. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are already running near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather be proactive than reactive, our take-action page has the tools to push your own council toward a vote like Fort Collins just had.