The city of Cambridge has shut off its automatic license plate readers from Flock safety until further notice over concerns about the company’s nationwide data-sharing practices.
16 cameras across the city went dark on Tuesday following a unanimous vote from Cambridge City Council on Monday night.
The cameras were installed over the summer after a 6-3 vote to use the technology in February.
The community will hold a public safety hearing in the future to determine if the cameras will ever go back on.
“There have been a lot of issues raised about Flock specifically as a company,” said Cambridge City Councilor Marc McGovern. “They’ve had some incidents in other communities where they said they weren’t going to share their data, and they did share their data with the federal government.”
McGovern was among the majority who initially voted in favor of using the technology from Flock Safety.
“It was described as we were going to have sort of an iron clad contract with Flock, and that we will control the data,” explained McGovern. “The data can be subpoenaed by the federal government. There are all sorts of loopholes in the control that we became more aware of over time.”
The decision came after more than two hours of public comment and claims that Flock Safety stores and shares data in a centralized database accessible to other agencies.
“This isn’t about saying we couldn’t use cameras. It’s very specific to the idea that this is a surveillance tool that’s known to have problems in terms of putting people at risk,” said Cambridge City Councilor Patty Nolan.
According to the ACLU, records show over 40 Massachusetts communities have contracts to deploy Flock Safety’s automatic license-plate reader technology.
“Other states, including Texas, have accessed this data to find people who have accessed legal reproductive care in Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts State Representative Steve Owens.
Rep. Owens filed a bill that aims to regulate the use of license plate recognition systems in Massachusetts.
That bill recently had a hearing before the Joint Committee on Transportation.
“This data can be accessed without any probable cause. It can be accessed without any reasonable suspicion,” the Watertown Democrat told Boston 25 News. “This has real implications for things we care about in Massachusetts and laws we’ve passed recently.”
A Flock Safety spokesperson sent the following statement to Boston 25 News following Cambridge’s decision to pause the use of its technology:
“We respect the Cambridge City Council’s decision and will work closely with the City to provide any information or support needed during its review process. Flock Safety partners with communities across the country to help them make informed, transparent decisions about public safety technology that align with their local values and priorities. The allegations about Flock’s relationship with federal agencies are untrue — these questions have been addressed and, in some cases, that have led to improvements in our products.”
Boston 25 News recently reported on concerns raised in Brookline after police said they were considering using Flock Technology from a major real estate company.
The ACLU said Massachusetts State Police and the following police departments were using license plate readers, most of them Flock, as of July 2025:
- Abington
- Attleboro
- Auburn
- Barnstable
- Bellingham
- Billerica
- Boston
- Boylston
- Braintree
- Canton
- Chelsea
- Chicopee
- Cohasset
- Douglas
- Easthampton
- Easton
- Framingham
- Franklin
- Greenfield
- Hadley
- Haverhill
- Hingham
- Holbrook
- Hopkinton
- Lawrence
- Ludlow
- Malden
- Marlborough
- Medway
- Middleboro
- Milton
- New Bedford
- Peabody
- Quincy
- Raynham
- Revere
- Somerset
- South Hadley
- Springfield
- Taunton
- Wakefield
- Waltham
- Weymouth
- Wilmington
A Boston Police spokesperson said that the department is not currently using technology from Flock Safety.
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