Dane County to not renew Flock camera contract

Our Take

Credit to WKOW 27 News for flagging a rare win in the fight against blanket license plate surveillance: Dane County, Wisconsin, is letting its Flock Safety contract expire on May 31 rather than renew it. These systems usually only grow — more cameras, more counties, more data-sharing agreements — so a government body actually stepping back is worth highlighting, even if the full story behind the decision is still coming into focus.

What matters here isn't just one county's budget line. It's a signal that "growing concerns from the community and officials," as WKOW puts it, can translate into real policy reversals. Flock's pitch to local governments is usually framed as a quiet, low-cost crime-fighting tool, but the quiet part is exactly the problem — these cameras log the movements of every driver, not just suspects, and that data often sits in systems with murky retention and sharing rules. When residents start asking who sees that data and why, officials sometimes have to answer with something other than a renewal signature.

Dane County won't be the last place this fight plays out, and it shouldn't be the only one. If you want to see whether ALPR cameras are already watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for a scandal to force your local government's hand, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back before the next contract gets signed.