Fond du Lac, Winnebago counties immediately suspend use of Flock cameras

Our Take

Credit to WBAY TV-2 in Green Bay for getting this on the record: Fond du Lac and Winnebago counties didn't just "review" their Flock contracts, they pulled the plug immediately, countywide. That's a notable departure from the usual playbook where departments quietly renew five-year deals while insisting the cameras are indispensable. When two counties move in lockstep like this, it usually means someone upstairs saw a legal exposure, a cost problem, or a public records request they didn't want to answer.

We don't yet know the exact trigger, and the segment is light on specifics, but the pattern fits what we've tracked elsewhere: once officials start fielding real questions about retention windows, data sharing agreements, or who else is pulling plate data out of these networks, the comfortable narrative of "it's just for stolen cars" gets a lot harder to sell. A suspension is also not a removal. The poles and cameras can stay bolted to the signposts for months while leadership figures out the politics, so residents in these counties should keep watching for whether this is a real stand-down or a pause before the next vendor renewal.

This is exactly why documenting where these systems exist matters, suspended or not. Check our camera map to see what's logged in your area, and if you want to push your own county toward a real answer instead of a quiet reversal, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight.