The City of Boston has ended its deployment of Flock Safety’s license-plate reader cameras, citing a violation of contractual terms that allowed the company to distribute data across the country.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu confirmed the decision during a recent “Ask the Mayor” segment on GBH News, stating, “We have actually abandoned Flock.” Her remarks came shortly before the publication of the city’s annual surveillance technology report for 2025.
The report revealed that a “vendor error” by Flock resulted in nationwide data sharing. The incident occurred within the first few days of a pilot program between April and September last year, during which the Boston Police Department tested approximately 45 Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras.
This report should have come out sooner. Transparency about ALPRs matters for public trust.
‘Vendor error’ is a funny way to describe selling citizen data to the highest bidder. Total breach of trust.
I heard this was happening with other cities too. Why did Boston stay involved so long?
Finally, a city taking privacy seriously. It’s shocking Flock shared data nationwide so quickly.