“The city has since ended all use of Flock and will not use its services going forward.” So Boston and its police department said in a joint statement, closing out a relationship with the license plate reader company that was always meant to be short.
The city never installed a permanent network. According to WCVB, police signed up for a trial of Flock’s automated license plate reader system, with 45 cameras, that ran from April 1, 2025, to Sept. 4, 2025. Boston 25 News reported the cameras came down when the trial period ended.
A switch that should have stayed off
The contract barred outside access. The city’s surveillance report says data was supposed to be shared only with certain trained Boston officers. Within days of the pilot starting, though, officials found that other agencies could look up plate and vehicle information through a nationwide lookup feature. The report says Flock turned that feature on by mistake.
“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,” the joint statement said. City officials told the outlets that Boston police themselves made no unauthorized access to the data during the lapse. WCVB said it had asked Flock for comment.
Reaction at City Hall
Councilor Ben Weber, who sits on the city’s surveillance oversight advisory board, called it disappointing. “It was disappointing to see that Flock was sharing the data,” he said. He wants the surveillance oversight ordinance amended so the council gets a say whenever the city changes the vendor behind a technology.
The American Civil Liberties Union weighed in as well. “When a private vendor is in control of an agency’s data, it really leaves the door wide open for potential abuse and misuse of the data,” the group said in a statement.
Boston is not leaving plate readers behind altogether. WCVB noted that the surveillance report shows the city still uses automatic license plate readers made by Motorola and Axon. Boston police say several internal systems exist to guard against misuse.
Boston 25 News added that at least 31 cities and towns in Massachusetts have dropped or suspended their Flock contracts, and that officers in Lynn, Stow and New Bedford face separate investigations over reports that they used the cameras to track residents.
Sources
- Boston canceled Flock contract after privacy lapse in camera trial – WCVB
- Boston ended Flock Safety camera trial after data exposed in security lapse
