Fort Collins Police Chief addresses Flock contract cancellation
The short version: Fort Collins' police chief is on record explaining why the city's Flock Safety contract got canceled — a rare moment of public accountability most ALPR deals never get.
Our Take
Credit to Denver7 for getting a sitting police chief on camera to answer for a canceled Flock Safety contract. That almost never happens. Most of these ALPR deals get signed in a council consent-agenda vote, renewed on autopilot, and quietly expanded without anyone in a uniform ever having to explain themselves to a reporter or the public. Whatever the chief's reasoning turns out to be, the fact that Fort Collins residents are getting an answer at all is the exception, not the rule.
Contract cancellations like this matter because they prove these systems aren't permanent fixtures — they're line items that can be challenged, defunded, or let lapse when a department can't justify the cost, the results, or the privacy tradeoff. Every city that walks back a Flock deal makes it a little easier for the next city council to ask hard questions before signing on, instead of after.
We'll keep tracking what happens next in Fort Collins. If you want to see whether ALPR cameras are still watching your own routes, check our map, and if your city hasn't had its own public reckoning yet, our take-action page has the tools to start pushing for one.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Denver7, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.