Flock Reinstalls Surveillance Cameras in Minnesota City Against Explicit Orders
Flock has allegedly reinstalled two AI surveillance cameras in Dayton, Minnesota, despite the city's direct instruction to halt all work on its automatic license plate reader program.
The surveillance camera manufacturer has found itself at the center of another controversy involving its AI-powered monitoring systems. In Dayton, Minnesota, residents and officials report that Flock proceeded to reinstall two cameras even after the city explicitly prohibited the company from doing so. According to a Facebook post from Dayton's local government, the Police Department received notice of a maintenance work order dated September 17. The city responded the following day with a clear directive: the program was suspended, and no further work orders should be executed. Flock disregarded this instruction and completed the reinstallation without municipal authorization.
Dayton's city council had voted on August 25 to suspend the automatic license plate reader program and Flock cameras altogether, driven by community objections regarding privacy and the potential for data misuse. The decision reflected growing unease among residents about the surveillance system's deployment in their community.
Flock's track record has drawn scrutiny across the country. The company's cameras have been implicated in problematic uses, including a case in which a car reviewer was wrongfully pulled over after one of Flock's cameras misidentified license plate information. In another incident, Flock's chief information security officer provided inaccurate testimony to the Oshkosh City Council, stating that Flock does not generate heat maps of individual license plates—a claim contradicted by the existence of that exact feature within the Flock system.