Cities that dropped surveillance contracts with Flock Safety are discovering they remain under similar monitoring, either because a rival vendor has stepped in or because the original cameras have not been removed. In Longmont, Colorado, campaigners celebrated when the city let its Flock contract lapse in December, only to see the council approve a new automated licence-plate reader (ALPR) system from Axon just months later, leaving them concerned that switching suppliers does nothing to address underlying privacy and surveillance issues.

Flock Safety operates more than 120,000 cameras across US roads, scanning licence plates billions of times a month, and police say the data helps solve crimes and locate stolen vehicles. Critics argue the system amounts to a warrantless dragnet, citing cases of officers misusing it to track romantic partners and concerns over data reaching federal immigration authorities. At least 56 municipalities have cancelled or rejected Flock contracts this year, according to advocacy group DeFlock, prompting Flock to announce new auditing and data-retention policies last week, which critics call inadequate; meanwhile Axon, a $48bn company, has replaced Flock in at least seven municipalities across five states, and some cities have resorted to covering cameras with bags after removal delays.