Kosciusko County ends Flock contract two years early. by WOWO News September 24, 2026 KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, Ind. (WOWO) - Kosciusko County commissioners have formally ended the county's contract with Flock, two years ahead of schedule. The unanimous vote Tuesday follows the county council's decision earlier this month to pause funding the automated license plate reader system. According to its partners in news, 21 Alive, the move also follows an order from Kosciusko County Prosecutor Brad Voelz to end routine searches and live tracking of the cameras. County Commission President Robert Conley told WNDU that all of the county's Flock cameras were deactivated Friday. Most have been removed and are being stored while the county waits for Flock to pick them up.

Flock Safety offers workers buyouts as cities cancel contracts and privacy scandals mount. September 24, 2026 Atlanta-based surveillance camera company Flock Safety is paying employees to leave voluntarily, as more than 200 cities and counties have dropped its license plate reader technology amid a wave of misuse cases and growing privacy backlash. The company, valued at more than $8 billion after a funding round in April, launched what it internally described as its "most generous" severance package ever, the Daily Mail reported. Employees had until October 2 to apply. Those accepted would be notified by October 9 and out the door by October 29. The buyouts reportedly include tens of thousands of dollars in cash, several months of subsidized health coverage, and extended time to exercise vested stock options. Flock Safety employs roughly 1,500 people and sells AI-powered license plate readers to police departments, cities, and private communities across the country. Company leadership framed the program as a way to give employees "greater agency" and avoid forced layoffs. But the timing tells a different story. Flock is bleeding government contracts at an accelerating rate, its technology has been implicated in stalking and domestic abuse cases, and its cameras were used to track a woman in Texas who had undergone a self-managed abortion. Ninety contract cancellations in a single month. Secure Justice, an Oakland-based advocacy group, has tracked 214 cities and counties that ended their Flock contracts since 2021. Ninety of those cancellations came in August alone, an average of roughly three local governments a day cutting ties with the company during that stretch. Flock has pushed back on the cancellation numbers. The company stated earlier this year that new city partnerships were outpacing non-renewals by about ten to one. That claim, if accurate, would suggest the company is still growing in raw terms. But a ten-to-one ratio means little when the cancellations are driven not by budget decisions but by public outrage over how the technology is being used. CEO and co-founder Garrett Langley acknowledged the toll on his workforce during an appearance on the All-In Podcast. He described employees going online and seeing people on X and Reddit asking why they were angry at Flock, wondering why the company was being criticized for things it did not do. That framing, the company as a misunderstood victim, is harder to sustain when you look at the specific cases driving the backlash. Concerns about bipartisan legislative pushback against Flock's cameras have only intensified the pressure on local officials to reconsider their contracts. Officers used the system to stalk ex-partners. In Albany County, New York, senior investigator Laurie Moore, 47, was suspended and charged after allegedly conducting more than 3,000 unauthorized searches on her former partner's vehicle using Flock surveillance cameras. Three thousand searches. On one car. That is not a policy gap. That is a system built without meaningful guardrails against the most predictable form of abuse. In Alpharetta, Georgia, one officer searched for his ex-partner 56 times between March and May. A second officer searched for another officer 29 times over the same period. The first officer resigned while under investigation. In San Jose, California, a police officer was fired after allegedly using the department's Flock system to locate a domestic-violence victim and pass her whereabouts to her alleged abuser. That case inverts the entire premise of the technology. A tool marketed as a way to protect public safety was allegedly weaponized to endanger someone already fleeing violence. These are not edge cases buried in obscure jurisdictions. They represent a pattern: officers with access to a powerful real-time tracking system and no effective oversight preventing them from using it for personal purposes. Security experts have warned that Flock's camera network could become an all-seeing surveillance apparatus, and the misuse cases suggest that warning was not hypothetical. Texas abortion case put Flock's nationwide reach on display. In May 2025, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Texas used Flock's nationwide search system to look for a woman who had undergone a self-managed abortion. Documents obtained by 404 Media and the Electronic Frontier Foundation showed that investigators had opened a death investigation and considered possible criminal charges. The sheriff's office and Flock initially said the woman was being sought as a missing person because of concerns about her safety. But the documents told a different story, one involving a criminal probe, not a welfare check. That case crystallized a fear that privacy advocates had raised for years: that a network of cameras scanning license plates in thousands of communities could be turned toward tracking individuals across state lines for conduct that is legal in some states and criminalized in others. The fact that Flock's system enabled a nationwide search, not just a local scan, made the scope of the capability impossible to ignore. The reach of these cameras extends well beyond government use. Flock readers have been installed at major retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's, feeding plate data into databases with alarmingly broad access. Langley's "compromise" pitch faces a credibility problem. Langley told Fox News in August that the country needed a "compromise" between privacy and safety rather than choosing one over the other. That framing positions Flock as a reasonable middle ground in a polarized debate. But the company's own record undermines the pitch. A compromise requires trust, and trust requires accountability. When officers can run thousands of unauthorized searches without detection until an outside complaint triggers an investigation, the system is not operating in a compromise zone. It is operating without meaningful limits. Flock Safety was founded in 2017 by Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd. Langley has said he started the company after experiencing break-ins in his neighborhood. The origin story is sympathetic, a homeowner frustrated by crime who built a tool to help catch criminals. Thousands of communities adopted the technology on that promise. The problem is not the promise. The problem is what happened after deployment, when the same system that could help identify a hit-and-run driver could also be used by a fired-up investigator to track an ex-girlfriend's car 3,000 times. The growing installation of license plate cameras at major retailers has only widened the surveillance footprint available for potential misuse. Vandalism, speculation, and an uncertain future. Beyond contract cancellations, Flock has faced equipment vandalism, a sign that opposition to the cameras has moved beyond city council debates and into direct action. The company has not disclosed the scale of the vandalism, but it was significant enough for S1 to note it alongside the contract losses and the buyout program. Speculation has emerged about a potential sale of the company, though no named sources have been tied to that speculation. Flock's $8 billion valuation makes it a major player in the surveillance technology market, but valuations built on government contracts are only as durable as the political will to maintain those contracts. The Daily Mail reported it had reached out to Flock for comment and was awaiting a response. The broader trend of expanding surveillance with minimal legal guardrails is not unique to Flock, but the company has become the most visible example of what happens when powerful tracking tools outpace the rules meant to govern them. When a company has to pay its own employees to leave because the backlash has gotten that bad, the product is not the only thing under surveillance, the business model is, too. Capital digest. Receive information on new articles posted, important topics and tips. Capital Digest won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

Florence enters a 10-year, $4M contract with Flock Safety for dozens of cameras across the city. Emily Mosierbr Updated Thu, September 24, 2026 at 2:00 AM PDT * The City of Florence signed a 10-year, $4 million contract with Flock Safety to expand its surveillance equipment, with the ability to cancel the agreement at any time without penalty. FLORENCE - The City of Florence entered into a contract with Flock Safety in June, agreeing to pay $4 million over 10 years. The program expands the city's use of equipment, adding nine pan-tilt-zoom cameras, 11 stationary cameras mostly intended for intersections, two mobile security trailers and 10 community cameras that may be placed in parks or potentially at participating local businesses, according to Florence City Manager Scotty Davis, who signed the contract. The agreement enters the city into Flock's Safe City Subscription, in which the private company will update and replace equipment as it becomes outdated. Despite being a decade-long agreement, the city is allowed to cancel the contract at any time without penalty should city council or the police department decide to no longer allocate funds to the program. Davis said Flock Safety also waived the standard requirement that would compel the city to repay any discounts if the contract is ended. The longterm agreement locks down a beneficial pricing model and makes administration duties easier by streamlining previously separate contracts into one reoccurring program. Credit from previously existing Flock contracts, already paid for by the city, was applied to the new deal. "In doing the 10-year agreement, we did receive discounts throughout, and we didn't have to pay anything for the first year," Davis said, adding the following three years are subsidized. "It saves us money. If we were to pay the same dollars on a year-to-year basis, it would be much more expensive for the city, but the key point is we can cancel at any time without any termination fees." Major Stephen Starling with the Florence Police Department said Flock cameras have helped close criminal investigations at a much faster rate. "Our opinion is it's a great tool, and we believe it can be used legally, and it can be used in a manner that benefits the city while also keeping the privacy of our citizens as a top priority," Starling said. "We're going to continue to adapt and change that model as much as we can, so that it is a useful tool for the safety of our city but also considers the concerns of our citizens." Flock cameras have been used in Florence since March 2024. In early September, residents voiced concerns about the use of Flock cameras and automated license plate readers at an overwhelmingly negative public forum. There, several questioned why Flock cameras were approved and installed without input from the public. Davis, who was a part of that panel, said he's heard from "scores" of residents who do approve of the city's use of Flock cameras. He added the cameras were not seen as controversial until very recently. As city manager, he was able to sign the $4 million agreement without a vote from the Florence City Council. However, the council was aware of the agreement, and Flock's Safe City Subscription was discussed during a January work retreat and again at an April work session before the contract was finalized. "I appreciate public input," Davis said. "We certainly take those things into consideration and take it to heart, but there are times when we have to make decisions, and decisions are made, and we don't necessarily speak with the public about those decisions. Most decisions, daily decisions, when you're running an organization as large as the City of Florence, are made without public input there. The objective, the mission, is to use the available resources to keep citizens safe." There are currently 54 Flock cameras in use across the city in addition to the two mobile security trailers. To date, there have been no reports of misuse of Flock cameras in Florence. The city has also taken steps to prevent the possibility of misuse by creating a FLOCK Transparency Portal and establishing a Technology Advisory Board to communicate public opinion to officials and review department technology policies.