Updated

Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 17

Dane County Board Cuts $80,000 for 24 Flock Cameras as Wisconsin Privacy Backlash Spreads

Updated

Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 17

Dane County Board Cuts $80,000 for 24 Flock Cameras as Wisconsin Privacy Backlash Spreads

Q: Why did a Wisconsin sheriff's department resort to putting bags over their own automated license plate cameras?

The Dane County Sheriff’s Office covered its own Flock license plate cameras because the county’s contract with Flock had ended, but the cameras were still in place and officials were not confident they had stopped collecting data. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said the cameras remained Flock’s property, so deputies could not simply remove them. Instead, they put bags over all 26 cameras to block any possible continued data capture while pressing the company to take the devices down. County officials said the move was meant to prevent unauthorized harvesting of vehicle information after the May 31 contract expiration. The action came after the Dane County Board voted in April to end funding for the system over privacy, trust, and oversight concerns. Local leaders said residents and board members were worried that data might still be gathered and potentially shared beyond the county, despite the contract’s expiration. Barrett said the department wanted to show it was taking community privacy concerns seriously and maintain public trust. Officials also pointed to a similar experience in Verona, where local leaders believed Flock cameras remained active after a contract ended. That added urgency to Dane County’s decision to physically block the cameras until Flock removed them.

3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 17

An April 16 vote by the Dane County Board ended $80,000 in funding for Flock license-plate cameras and barred any further spending, shutting down a 24-camera system in one of Wisconsin’s most populous counties.
Citizen complaints and privacy experts drove the move, with board chair Patrick Miles citing Fourth Amendment concerns and calling Flock a “proven bad actor” while leaving room for vendors with stronger safeguards.
Dane County’s cameras going dark also removed its data from a network previously accessible to 140 law-enforcement agencies, including departments in Missouri, New York and Tennessee.
That loss matters because several Wisconsin cities have already exited Flock deals, making the network less useful for agencies that stay; Monona said in early May that its contract was under review despite police crediting the system in one cross-state case.