Oklahoma City officials are set to take up again a disputed deal involving Flock Safety, which has automated license plate readers that are already in use around the city.
KOSU reported the proposed $270,000 renewal comes as city officials face growing criticism over privacy, transparency, and the misuse of the technology by at least one police officer.
Here's what to know
After a delay at the Aug. 4 meeting, Oklahoma City's council is now expected to weigh the contract this week. Revised language was not included on the Aug. 4 agenda, and neither the city nor the Oklahoma City Police Department has publicly released the updated agreement.
The deal would cover how the police department uses 90 active Flock cameras if council members sign off on it. Those cameras have been gathering vehicle data on public streets since 2023. Crowdsourced mapping projects cited by KOSU put the number of automated license plate readers across the Oklahoma City metro area at no fewer than 300.
Sgt. Dillon Quirk of the Oklahoma City Police Department said in a pro-Flock video that each camera captures still images of the backs of vehicles traveling in one direction. It also records license plates and identifying details such as make and model. He said the images are deleted after 30 days unless they are "archived for evidentiary purposes."
Supporters in law enforcement say the cameras can speed up the search for stolen cars and missing people. Opponents, however, argue the system creates a larger surveillance network that could be used for immigration enforcement or other policing activity, as KOSU previously reported.
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Why is this concerning?
Scrutiny increased when records revealed that an Oklahoma City police officer had been punished for accessing police information for personal reasons, including license plate reader data, the outlet said.
The discipline included a year of probation and a three-day unpaid suspension. The misconduct file was provided to KOSU by Oklahoma City resident and anti-Flock activist Jarrett Freeman.
Although the department turned over one misuse record, Freeman believes other improper searches may have occurred without resulting in discipline.
Oklahoma City is just one of many communities where Flock backlash is building. Many other cities have cut ties with the company over privacy and misuse concerns.
And according to the Institute of Justice, there have now been at least 40 cases of police officers allegedly using Flock cameras to stalk romantic interests since September 2021.
What's being done?
In the promotional video released before the vote, the police department said it is tightening the rules governing how the system is used, as KOSU noted. Quirk said officers must independently verify every alert generated by the system, and that requirement was added to department directives on June 26.
Quirk also said only authorized personnel can access Flock data and that searches are logged for compliance review, the outlet reported. The revised contract may remove Oklahoma City from National Lookup, block federal agencies from viewing local Flock data unless they get explicit approval, and forbid the information from being used for immigration enforcement.
Because the amended contract has not been publicly released, however, KOSU said it remains unclear if those provisions appear in the final agreement. Until there is full transparency, communities everywhere will keep fighting for it.
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