Flock camera use to end in much of Monroe County

Our Take

Credit to CBS Detroit for getting this on record: an 8-1 vote by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners to end Flock license plate reader use anywhere county money was footing the bill. That's not a study committee or a symbolic resolution — it's commissioners actually cutting off funding for a surveillance system, which is rarer than it should be given how quietly these contracts usually get renewed.

What makes this notable is the vote count. Eight to one isn't a nail-biter, it's a consensus that crossed whatever partisan lines usually stall these debates. That suggests the concerns weren't coming from one ideological corner but from a broader recognition that a network of always-on cameras logging every car that passes deserves more scrutiny than it typically gets at budget time. Once a county starts asking who has access to that data, how long it's kept, and who's accountable when it's misused, the math on these contracts often stops looking so simple.

Monroe County joins a growing list of communities reconsidering deals they signed with little public debate. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are running in your own area, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your county have this conversation before the cameras go up instead of after, our take-action page has a place to start.