The city of Plymouth has canceled its contract with Flock, a company that provides automatic license plate reader systems, after a wrongful stop made national news. The stop involved a resident and their wife, who were tracked by Flock cameras for days before being ambushed by four police officers.
The city council voted to cancel the contract on Tuesday, with the lone holdout being Plymouth’s Mayor, Jeff Wosje. According to MPR News, Wosje said, “I know people have concern, but I’m weighing this against what we all talked about, the ability to keep our residents safe and catch the bad guys, versus basically the bad PR that Flock has.”
Council Meeting and Vote
A resident who attended the three-hour council meeting, Doug Maltby, reported that Chief Fadden presented a case for how Flock is used by the Plymouth Police Department and its importance for public safety. The presentation included a slide addressing the wrongful stop, which was brought up during questioning.
Chief Fadden also noted that Plymouth was no longer sharing its Flock data with other west metro police departments, citing concerns over immigration purposes. The city had previously shared data with about 36 other departments.
Aftermath and Future
The cancellation of the Flock contract comes less than two months after the company’s CEO, Garrett Langley, admitted to failures that put innocent people at risk and announced changes. It is unclear how long it will take for the cameras to be removed from Plymouth or whether another automatic license plate reader system will take its place.
The removal of the Flock cameras will likely take some time, and it is unclear what system, if any, will replace it. Options such as Axon or Leonardo may be considered, but no decision has been made yet.
