City of Kalamazoo tightens oversight of Flock camera and surveillance purchases

Our Take

Credit to WWMT-TV for flagging a move that more city councils ought to copy: Kalamazoo just made it harder for departments to quietly add surveillance gear through routine purchasing channels. The new policy forces a public review of contracts touching license plate readers, biometric ID, or "any future technology capable of tracking vehicles or devices" — language broad enough to catch whatever Flock and its competitors dream up next.

This matters because the usual pattern with ALPR expansion is procurement by stealth: a city manager signs a contract, a department head calls it a budget line item, and residents find out their movements are being logged only after the cameras are already bolted to poles. Requiring commission-level sign-off doesn't ban the technology, but it does put a political cost on expanding it, and it gives residents a hearing and a vote to organize around instead of a fait accompli.

The 5-2 vote also shows this isn't a fringe concern — a majority of a city commission looked at Flock's footprint and decided it needed a check, not a rubber stamp. Other cities weighing their own Flock contracts should take note, and residents anywhere should check our camera map to see what's already watching their streets, then use our take-action guide to push their own councils toward the same kind of oversight.