Salida Police Department cancels contract with Flock Safety, cites community concerns
The short version: Salida, Colorado dropped Flock Safety after public pushback, proving organized community pressure can actually kill an ALPR contract.
Our Take
KOAA 5's report on Salida is the kind of story we want to see more of: a city council actually listening when residents push back on a surveillance contract, instead of rubber-stamping the renewal because a vendor's sales rep promised it would only ever be used to catch stolen cars. Credit to the reporters for covering a small-town cancellation that bigger outlets would skip — these local fights are where the real battles over Flock Safety are won or lost.
What's notable here isn't just the outcome, it's the process. Somebody in Salida had to show up, ask hard questions about data retention and who else gets access to that license plate history, and keep asking until the council took it seriously. That's the template. Flock's pitch to small departments is always the same — cheap, easy, 'just for public safety' — and it works until the public actually finds out how the network functions and who else is quietly plugging into it.
If you're in a town still running these cameras, or trying to figure out if one just got installed near you, check our camera map to see what's already out there, and use our take-action resources to push your own council toward the same kind of scrutiny Salida just gave Flock.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KOAA 5, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.