Town Bags Its Own Cameras Rather Than Let Flock Remove Them

Internal emails from an unnamed municipality show officials directing staff to cover Flock Safety license-plate readers with black plastic bags after a contract dispute turned into a standoff over who owns the hardware.

A town official emailed staff to place black plastic bags over Flock Safety cameras following a contract dispute.
Flock Safety told the town it objected to the removal of its equipment, triggering the improvised bagging solution.
The emails, obtained by 404 Media, reveal the town treated the cameras as removable infrastructure it could simply obscure.
Flock Safety cameras are networked license-plate readers sold to law enforcement and municipalities across the United States.
The town's workaround left the cameras physically mounted but operationally blind, their lenses sealed in garbage bags.

A municipal official directed staff to pull black plastic bags over the town's Flock Safety license-plate cameras after the vendor objected to having them physically removed, according to internal emails obtained by 404 Media and published Wednesday.

The instruction was direct: “For the time being, if you or someone on your crew has availability to secure black plastic bags over the cameras, that would be great.”

Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based surveillance hardware company whose networked automatic license-plate readers are installed in thousands of jurisdictions, had informed the town it “objects to our removing their equipment” — a formulation that apparently left bagging as the next logical option.

The emails do not specify which town issued the directive or the precise terms of the underlying contract dispute. Flock cameras are typically sold or leased to local governments under multi-year agreements that can complicate ownership questions when a municipality wants out.

The cameras remained bolted to their poles throughout. Operationally blind, contractually contested, and wearing garbage bags — but still very much present.