OQC Crime Watch #2681: Jamison Fisher Update and No More Flock Cameras in Moline

Our Take

Credit to Local 4 News WHBF for flagging this one: Moline, Illinois is reportedly walking back its Flock Safety ALPR deployment. We don't have the granular reasoning the city council used, and we're not going to speculate on details the segment didn't spell out — but the headline itself matters. Wins like this don't happen often, and when they do, it's usually because residents showed up, asked hard questions about cost, efficacy, and data retention, and made elected officials uncomfortable enough to reconsider a contract they'd already signed.

That's the part worth dwelling on. Flock's pitch to small and mid-size departments is that these cameras are a cheap, easy force multiplier. What often gets glossed over is the recurring subscription cost, the lack of independent audits on how footage gets used or shared, and the fact that once a network like this is normalized, it rarely shrinks — it grows. Moline reversing course, if that's really what's happening, is a reminder that these deployments are not permanent facts of life. They're policy decisions, made by people who can be lobbied, voted out, or simply outvoted on the council floor.

If you're in the Quad Cities 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 if Moline's reversal has you wondering how to push for the same result where you live, our take-action page has the playbook other communities have used to get city councils to listen.