The Syracuse Common Council on Monday revoked Flock Safety’s permission to install two license plate readers on city property through an agreement with Syracuse University, but postponed a similar vote on the Syracuse Police Department’s own 13 readers.
Councilors Jimmy Monto and Corey Williams introduced legislation to revoke Flock’s presence on Syracuse streets, through contracts with Syracuse Police Department and Syracuse University. The councilors cited concerns that Flock Safety’s data collection posed potential harm to the privacy and safety of Syracuse residents.
Local officials around the nation are reconsidering their agreements with Flock for similar reasons. Mayor-elect Sharon Owens in October also expressed concern about the city’s agreement with Flock Safety during Central Current’s mayoral forum.
Ahead of the vote, Monto encouraged his colleagues to support his legislation, saying the city has been left to clean up the “civil rights fallout” created by Flock’s “nationwide vehicle tracking network.” Flock’s license plate readers, Monto said, don’t distinguish between suspected criminals and law-abiding residents, such as parents taking their children to school, or a worker traveling to a union meeting.
“The cameras track people’s movements, store the data and then make it available far beyond the local community that supposedly controls it,” Monto said before the vote. “Flock’s business model depends on normalizing mass tracking of ordinary drivers.… Everyone gets scanned, logged and analyzed.”
Monto said after the vote that he held the legislation to revoke the police department’s Flock readers to allow the department to explore its options and potentially prepare a proposal to contract with a different vendor for license plate readers.
Monday’s vote came on the heels of more investigative reporting about privacy protections and access to Flock’s network. Flock has in recent years amassed more than 5,000 contracts with local police departments, and more than 1,000 contracts with private customers like Home Depot, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and homeowners associations.
The Syracuse Police Department since July 2024 has operated Flock’s AI-powered license plate readers above city streets, collecting data on each passing vehicle and storing that data for 30 days — or more, if investigators flag data as relevant to an investigation — in a cloud server.
Those readers have helped the police department solve three homicide cases, according to department spokesperson Kieran Coffey, who said he could not provide additional details on those cases as they are being litigated.
Syracuse University recently contracted with Flock.
The university planned to install eight readers around its campus: six on its own property, and two on the city’s right of way. That effort to keep tabs on every vehicle that drove on or near the university’s campus would help enhance public safety, said SU spokesperson Sarah Scalese.
Scalese and Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel did not respond to Central Current’s request for comment by the time of publication.
In a Monday afternoon statement to Central Current, Lewbel said that it is “simply not true that Flock collects personal data.” Flock’s technology, Lewbel said, is “not capable of tracking individuals.”
“Overall, Flock Safety provides technology that helps law enforcement deter and solve crime, recover stolen vehicles, and locate missing persons faster, while prioritizing transparency, accountability, and privacy,” Lewbel said. “Our goal is to give communities tools that make people safer while respecting local laws and community values.”
In a Tuesday morning statement to Central Current, Scalese said the university is aware of the council’s decision, and remains committed to working with SPD to support community safety.
Councilors and civil rights advocates say that the readers, and the data they collect, may threaten the safety of immigrants, abortion seekers, protesters, and other marginalized individuals.
Councilor Marty Nave, who represents Syracuse’s diverse North Side, said recent operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have left his community in fear. Nave is worried about the potential for Flock to share data with ICE to target Syracuse’s immigrant community.
“People are looking for protecting our civil rights, our civil liberties,” Nave said. “Right now, we are all vulnerable because of ICE, and in my council district, we’ve had ICE invasions, too.”
Advocates last week welcomed the common councilors’ legislation, encouraging the council to ax the city’s relationship with Flock.
“Across the country, license plate readers have emerged as one of the most prominent tools driving Trump’s far-right agenda,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Communications Director Will Owen. “To protect immigrant communities and abortion seekers, Syracuse must end its partnership with Flock.”
STOP has issued consistent criticism of Flock, and Syracuse’s use of Flock’s products.
Daniel Schwarz, a senior privacy and technology strategist for the New York Civil Liberties Union and a member of the city’s Surveillance Technology Working Group, celebrated the news that Syracuse councilors were considering blocking Flock’s access to city property.
Schwarz believes the city should pass legislation that gives the public more oversight over the data collected by Flock’s license plate readers.
Now that the city government appears to be once again scrutinizing the license plate readers, Schwarz and NYCLU pushed for Syracuse lawmakers to draft policy that:
- Restricts the use of LPRs
- Shortens retention periods
- Prohibits data sharing without explicit judicial authorization
“The people of Syracuse shouldn’t have to fear constant tracking or monitoring and that their movements are analyzed by potentially hostile out-of-state entities — they deserve tighter guardrails over technology that impacts their everyday lives,” Schwarz said.
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