Lynchburg City Council votes to end use of Flock technology in the city

Our Take

Credit to WFXR News for catching this one live: six Lynchburg City Council members, in a special session, voted unanimously to end the city's use of Flock Safety cameras. That's not a budget footnote — it's a rare reversal in a surveillance industry that usually only moves in one direction: more cameras, more networks, more data sharing between departments that never asked the public first.

Most Flock stories we cover are about expansion — a new city signing on, a sheriff bragging about "hits," a company selling council members on crime stats that don't hold up to scrutiny. Lynchburg flips that script. It's proof that once residents and elected officials actually look at what these systems track, retain, and share, the math doesn't always favor keeping the cameras running. Six votes, zero dissent, is a loud statement from a council that had access to whatever data and complaints made this decision easy.

This is the blueprint other cities should be watching: public pressure plus a willing council can undo a Flock deployment, not just slow its growth. If you want to see whether ALPRs are watching your neighborhood right now, check our camera map, and if Lynchburg's vote gives you ideas for your own city council meeting, our take-action guide walks through how to make the case.