Another Michigan community has ended its contract with Flock Safety.
Sumpter Township in southwest Wayne County began a free trial of Flock’s automated license plate reader cameras in April. The township police department announced Monday on Facebook that — after considering public feedback — it decided to discontinue the agreement.
“While the national debate over technology in policing—ranging from ALPRs to drones—has sparked passionate views, our focus remains local,” the statement read. “Our approach is always centered on the unique needs of Sumpter Township’s 36 square miles and, most importantly, on the well-being of our residents.”
Sumpter Township joins at least four other metro Detroit communities that have cancelled Flock contracts, including Clawson, Ferndale, Westland, and Milford. Others across the state, including Oceana County, Menominee, and Dickinson County, have also ended or shot down agreements
This comes amid a broader debate over surveillance technology, spurred by accusations of misconduct and concerns over data privacy. Michigan policymakers across the political spectrum have proposed regulating the cameras.
Dawud Walid heads the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR-MI has been vocal about concerns that the technology could be used to over-surveil minority communities or that data from it could be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Walid says police might not be using Flock to target minorities on purpose, but that law enforcement's historical relationship with communities of Color cannot be ignored.
“Policing in the United States of America has colorblind policies but has never been instituted in a colorblind fashion,” Walid said. "We can't erase race and national origin out of the equation when there are police departments using such technology.”
He says he is encouraged by community activism against Flock cameras.
"Citizens still have a voice here in our state and in our county,” Walid said. “When we organize and raise our concerns about wanting to keep America free and a land of liberty… this is what democracy is supposed to look like.”
However, supporters maintain that the technology can be a vital tool to locate stolen vehicles and track vehicle movements during criminal investigations when paired with common-sense regulation. The cameras are used by over 100 law enforcement agencies in Michigan.
Westland is a metro Detroit community that discontinued its Flock contract in early July.
Melissa Sampey is a member of Westland City council. She said the city had 29 Flock cameras, but the city council was divided over the issue of contract renewal earlier this summer.
“One school of thought was that we were going to make sure that, if there is a crime that occurred in our city, that we do understand that extra surveillance does help,” Stampey said. “The concern that many of us had was… all the data that was collected from individuals and the platform that it's stored on.”
She said the council received broad feedback that the community was not interested in continuing to work with Flock.
“The common theme is that people don't feel like they have a sense of privacy, and people don't want to be tracked and documented by a system and that's kind of what we were hearing from people on all sides,” Sampey said.
Westland Police Chief Kyle Dawley eventually decided not to bring renewal before the council and let the contract expire. The cameras will be gradually removed in the coming months.
Last week, Flock updated its privacy, accountability, and transparency policies including shifting from a default 30-day data retention period to a 7-day one. It also introduced an opt-in feature to flag suspicious usage of ALPR databases
Flock Safety did not respond to a request for comment.
