Gardner police discontinue Flock cameras as license plate readers face scrutiny

Our Take

Score one for the pushback column. KMBC 9 reports that Gardner, Kansas killed its Flock Safety contract after the public started asking the questions city officials apparently hadn't: who sees this data, how long is it kept, and what stops it from being shared with agencies that have nothing to do with local crime-fighting. That's the same pattern we've watched play out in town after town — a council votes yes without much debate, then residents find out later what they actually signed up for.

Gardner isn't an outlier. It's proof that these contracts aren't as locked-in as vendors like to imply. Cities can and do walk away once people show up to meetings, file records requests, and make noise. That only happens when someone's paying attention, which is exactly why we track deployments block by block on the map — you can't push back on a camera network you don't know exists.

If your town has a Flock system or is about to vote one in, don't wait for a news crew to show up after the fact. Check our take-action page for ways to get on record before the contract's already signed. Credit to KMBC 9 for putting this story in front of viewers — this is the kind of local accountability reporting that actually moves city councils.