Wisconsin city becomes latest to drop Flock cameras

Our Take

A unanimous vote is a loud statement. When a city council doesn't just trim a budget line but zeroes it out entirely, it usually means the cost-benefit case for keeping the cameras fell apart in public view. Neenah joins a growing list of towns where officials looked at what Flock Safety actually delivers versus what residents were promised and decided the tradeoff wasn't worth it. Credit to WLUK-TV FOX 11 for covering a local government story that too often gets buried under bigger headlines.

These reversals matter because they puncture the narrative that ALPR networks are an inevitable, uncontroversial upgrade to public safety. Flock's pitch relies on cities signing multi-year contracts before anyone has time to ask hard questions: who audits the data, how long is it stored, which outside agencies get access, and what happens when the system misidentifies a car. Once a council starts asking those questions out loud, in public session, the answers often aren't reassuring enough to justify the price tag or the privacy cost.

Every city that walks back a Flock contract makes it easier for the next one to do the same. If you want to see how dense this camera network already is near you, check our map, and if you'd rather your town be the next Neenah than the next city renewing blindly, our take-action page has the tools to get started.