Boston ends Flock camera use after vendor enabled prohibited data-sharing feature

Event: April 1, 2025 · First reported: September 16, 2026 · 1 source

A city surveillance report revealed that Boston ended its use of Flock Safety license plate readers after the Boston Police Department found that a nationwide lookup feature allowing outside agencies to access Boston data had been enabled, despite a contract prohibiting it. The city and BPD said in a joint statement that they directed Flock to disable the function immediately and will not use the company's services going forward. According to the report, Flock turned the feature on by mistake, and city officials said no unauthorized access by Boston police occurred during the lapse. City Councilor Ben Weber called the data-sharing disappointing and the ACLU said vendor control of agency data opens the door to potential misuse.

Why this matters

The episode shows that contractual limits on ALPR data-sharing can be undercut by vendor-side default settings, raising questions about how cities verify compliance rather than relying on assurances. It also illustrates how surveillance-reporting ordinances can surface lapses that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Key facts

Boston's Flock pilot ran from April 1, 2025 to Sept. 4, 2025 and involved 45 ALPR cameras.
Officials said they discovered within days of launch that outside agencies could run nationwide lookups on Boston data; the surveillance report attributes the setting to a Flock error.
City officials said there was no unauthorized data access by Boston police during the lapse.
Boston says it has ended all use of Flock but continues to use ALPR systems from Motorola and Axon.
Councilor Ben Weber, a member of the city's surveillance oversight advisory board, wants the surveillance ordinance amended so the City Council reviews vendor changes.
WCVB said it sought comment from Flock; no company response was reported.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

City councilor, ACLU react to Flock privacy lapse in Boston (WCVB, September 16, 2026)

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About this record

BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated September 20, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.