Cities Are Dumping Flock Safety Contracts at a Record Pace in August

Flock Safety, the AI-powered surveillance camera company, is losing municipal contracts at the fastest pace in its history. According to Oakland-based anti-surveillance group Secure Justice, 214 cities and counties have dropped Flock since 2021, with 90 jurisdictions ending contracts in August alone, a fourfold increase from July.

The Backlash Is Accelerating

Over the last 30 days, an average of three localities a day have torn up their contracts with Flock, per research by Secure Justice. The cancellations are hitting a wide geographic spread, ranging from Lansing, Michigan, to Pflugerville, Texas.

Concerns include the cost of the cameras, the sharing of data among agencies, the reach of Flock’s surveillance network, and reports of police officers misusing the system.

Arizona Turns Hostile

The privately held company has taken particular damage in Arizona. Two Phoenix suburbs became the latest municipalities to terminate contracts with Flock, canceling their use of automated license plate readers, with Tempe, which had an $80,000 contract, saying it would turn off all of its Flock cameras in response to mounting reports of data misuse in other regions.

Three hours later, the nearby town of Cave Creek also announced it had ended its contract with Flock and completely removed the technology. Chandler ended its Flock partnership after an audit found an unexplained anomaly in how an employee used the system.

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Data Misuse Is the Trigger

An early August Washington Post investigation found more than 50 law enforcement officers had been accused, charged with or convicted of misusing ALPRs for unauthorized purposes, including to stalk past partners without their consent.

The political tone is shifting too. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the increasing use of ALPRs “out of control” during a Wednesday press conference. On the West Coast, the LAPD stopped using Flock when its agreement expired, pending stronger terms for data ownership, privacy, security, and sharing, though officials left open the possibility of a new contract.

Flock Says Growth Still Outpaces Losses

The company is pushing back on the narrative. “So far in 2026, new city partnerships have outpaced nonrenewals by approximately 10 to one,” said Courtney Terlecki, a company spokesperson.

The company did not disclose how many new customers it has added in 2026, but said its products are used by more than 5,000 communities. Flock is private, so there is no direct equity trade, but the story has read-through for public names tied to surveillance, policing tech, and government IT budgets.

Options Market and Stocks to Watch

Flock is not public, so watch adjacent names that trade on surveillance, AI vision, and municipal tech spend:

• AXON — the largest listed public-safety tech vendor. Watch for whether the anti-surveillance backlash bleeds into body cam and evidence-management renewals, or whether Axon picks up share as cities look for a vendor with a cleaner data-governance story.
• MSI (Motorola Solutions) — sells competing ALPR and public-safety camera systems. Watch for commentary on ALPR demand and any city-level pushback on the next earnings call.
• PLTR — a barometer for public-sector data platform sentiment. Watch for headline sensitivity if the ALPR privacy debate broadens into a wider government-data story.
• GD and other gov-services names — watch for read-through if procurement scrutiny tightens around AI-driven surveillance contracts more broadly.

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