Avon council directs staff to end Flock camera contract, siding with privacy
After a summer of vandalism and months of public debate, the Avon Town Council on Tuesday directed staff to terminate the town's contract with Flock Safety for license-plate-reading cameras.
The Avon Town Council directed staff Tuesday to terminate the town's contract with Flock Safety, the vendor behind the automated license-plate-reading cameras posted around town, after months of public debate over privacy and data security.
The direction came at the end of a community work session at the council's Oct. 6 meeting, at which about 20 community members spoke, according to the town's Oct. 7 announcement. Police Chief Greg Daly presented a comprehensive staff report and a Flock Safety representative presented before public testimony. Afterward, Daly directed the department's ALPR coordinator to immediately discontinue access to ALPR data, disable the alert hotlist, and cease sharing the information with other law enforcement agencies.
A summer of pressure
The direction capped a pressure campaign that began over the summer. One Flock camera and two speed-safety cameras were vandalized on July 18, causing more than $53,000 in estimated damage, according to the town's Aug. 27 letter to residents. Residents packed a July 28 council meeting in opposition, presenting a petition with more than 466 signatures, according to a summary of the meeting.
The town's Aug. 27 letter, signed by Mayor Tamra Underwood, framed the Oct. 6 session as a public follow-up to weeks of resident concern. It said the Avon Police Department proposed the cameras in 2023, that staff were reviewing internal policies and the terms of the Flock Safety contract, and that the use of Flock cameras had become a national debate. The town invited residents to email comments to the council and promised a comprehensive staff report with policy options, published in advance of the meeting.
What comes next
The town operates 12 Flock cameras. The council directed that Flock Safety physically remove the cameras from town as soon as practicable. Town staff is researching other closed surveillance systems to replace Flock. The Avon Police Department will coordinate with Flock Safety on removing the equipment and terminating the contracts as soon as possible, the announcement said.
The Aug. 27 letter also described the town's existing controls: the cameras sit at the town's entry points along the Interstate 70 off-ramps and U.S. Highway 6, searches of the data are restricted to lawful criminal investigations, and access is logged and audited. The town operates five automated speed cameras that are separate from the Flock system.
Avon is one of several Colorado communities to reconsider the technology this year. In May, the Denver City Council voted against extending its Flock camera contract over surveillance concerns, though the mayor's office later extended the arrangement with added data protections.
