What do we know about Carrollton’s Flock contracts?

We’re paying for the “privilege” of being monitored every time we leave our homes.

Carrollton is leasing roughly 70-75 ALPRs from Flock Safety. Part of this cost is paid for by a grant from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority (MVCPA), which has to be renewed annually.

Carrollton Police Department is also feeding data from existing City-owned cameras into Flock’s software, for a total of around 90-95 cameras in a city of roughly 35 square miles and 135,000 people. That works out to about ~2.5 cameras per square mile or one camera for every ~1400 residents!

Taxpayers are funding the software subscription costs, as well as the camera hardware leases. There’s no guarantee that the MVCPA grant will continue year over year to cover some of the City’s costs, and no guarantee that Flock Safety won’t raise subscription costs. How often does your TV streaming service raise their rates? This won’t be any different.

The financial burden to the city is not sustainable. If nothing changes, our expected costs are over $77,000/year, but if the grant is not renewed, the cost will jump to over $261,000/year. 

Flock is also facing increasing scrutiny across the country, both in public opinion and in litigation. Our city has a fiduciary duty not to invest in technologies that have outpaced the law and are likely to get the city involved in expensive court cases.