The City of Boston ended its brief partnership with Flock Safety after data was exposed during a security lapse in a trial period last year.
“When the Boston Police Department discovered that a Flock data-sharing function had been enabled despite a clear, contractual agreement prohibiting its use, BPD immediately directed the vendor to disable it,” a joint statement from the police department and the city reads. “The City has since ended all use of Flock and will not use its services going forward.”
Boston’s trial with Flock ran from April to September of last year. Forty-five ALPR cameras were placed in the city during the trial and were taken down once the period ended.
The city says the pilot program was supposed to only store information and data that was accessible by trained Boston Police personnel. However, a data lookup function, which was supposed to be turned off per the city’s agreement with Flock, was mistakenly left enabled, allowing the information to be shared with other agencies in the county.
City officials say the vendor was contacted and the function was disabled after it was noticed.
There was no authorized access of the data by BPD during the lapse.
Although Flock cameras are no longer up in the city,
At least 31 cities and towns in Massachusetts have dropped or suspended their contracts with Flock Safety as the cameras have come under increased scrutiny.
Officers in Lynn,Stow, and New Bedford are under separate investigations for reportedly using the cameras to track residents.
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