Police remove Flock cameras again after unexpected reinstallations in Grass Valley

Our Take

Credit to CBS News Sacramento for catching this one: Grass Valley's city council and police department pulled the plug on Flock Safety, had the cameras physically removed, and then watched them pop back up anyway. Flock's explanation — an automated system accidentally re-triggered installation — should raise eyebrows rather than lower them. If a private surveillance vendor's software can unilaterally reinstall hardware on public streets after a government customer says no, that's not a quirky bug, that's a design flaw in who actually controls the infrastructure.

This is the quiet part of the ALPR business model showing through: once a city signs on, the cameras, the cloud storage, and the national search network are all managed remotely by the company, not the municipality. A canceled contract is supposed to mean the surveillance stops. When it doesn't — even temporarily, even by 'mistake' — it shows how little local control communities actually retain once Flock's gear goes up on a pole. Grass Valley residents pushed to get rid of these cameras once already; they shouldn't have to keep fighting the same fight because of a vendor's automation error.

If you want to see what's already installed near you, check our camera map, and if your city is debating a Flock contract — or trying to actually get out of one — our take-action resources can help you push back before the cameras go up, or make sure they stay down once they're removed.