Residents ask East Moline to cancel Flock contract
The short version: East Moline residents are pushing back on a grant-funded Flock ALPR contract, and local pressure like this is exactly how these deals get unwound.
Our Take
Credit to WQAD News 8 for covering this one, because the "it's free, it's grant-funded" pitch is one of the most common ways Flock gets a foot in the door. Cities love to frame these contracts as a no-brainer when the money isn't coming out of the general fund, but that framing conveniently skips the actual question: should a city be building a network that logs everyone's movements just because a grant covers the invoice?
East Moline residents showing up to ask for cancellation is the system working the way it's supposed to. Grant funding doesn't mean no cost — taxpayers still pay for data retention, staff time, and the privacy trade-off baked into a city-wide surveillance grid. Once that infrastructure is normalized, walking it back gets harder every year the contract renews.
If you're in East Moline or anywhere else watching a similar fight unfold, check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and hit up take action for tools to push your own council on transparency and accountability before the next contract gets signed.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WQAD News 8, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.