Police Chief Withdraws FY27 Funding Request for Flock Safety Camera and License Plate Reader System

Our Take

Credit to KNEB TV for catching this one: Alliance Police Chief David Leavitt withdrew his department's FY27 budget request for Flock Safety cameras and license plate readers. We don't know the full backstory yet — whether it was cost concerns, council pushback, or community objections — but the outcome matters more than the reason. A funding request that never gets voted into a contract is a camera network that never gets built, at least for now.

This is exactly the moment where organizing actually changes outcomes. Once a city council approves a Flock contract and the poles go in, undoing it is a much heavier lift — contracts auto-renew, budgets get baked in, and "we already paid for it" becomes the argument for keeping surveillance running even when it doesn't deliver on crime-fighting promises. Alliance may get another shot at this request next budget cycle, so residents who want to keep it that way should stay loud and show up before the next vote, not after.

We'll be watching to see if this request resurfaces in Alliance or shows up reframed as a "pilot program" or grant-funded trial, a common workaround when a direct ask stalls. In the meantime, check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and if your town is facing its own Flock proposal, our take-action page has tools for getting in front of it before the budget line gets approved.