Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen cancels Flock Safety contract over issues with cameras

Our Take

Credit to KOAT for the reporting here, because stories where a sheriff cancels a Flock Safety contract outright are still rare. Sheriff John Allen pulling 21 cameras out of Bernalillo County over privacy and data security concerns is the kind of accountability moment we don't see nearly often enough — most agencies sign up and never look back, letting the camera count quietly climb year after year.

What's notable isn't just the cancellation, it's the admission baked into it: that these systems come with real privacy tradeoffs and real data security risk, not just the marketing promise of catching stolen cars and wanted suspects. That's the exact argument we make every time a new ALPR network gets proposed — the question is never just 'does it work,' it's who controls the data, who can access it, and what happens when that access gets abused or breached.

Every county that walks this back is proof it's possible, and every county that doesn't is one more node in a national tracking network most residents never voted on. Check our camera map to see what's running near you, and if you want to push your own city council or sheriff toward a Bernalillo-style reckoning, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight.