Documented Incident
Flock Safety announces voluntary safeguards; Wisconsin agencies not required to adopt them
First reported: August 13, 2026 · 1 source
Flock Safety announced a set of recommended changes Thursday amid growing criticism over privacy and officer misuse, including cutting default data retention from 30 days to 7 days, "offense filtering" so agencies can limit which partners can search their cameras and for which crimes, and "audit assistance" to flag unusual search activity for administrators. The measures are recommendations only, and law enforcement agencies are not obligated to adopt them. TMJ4 contacted Brookfield and Milwaukee police and the Waukesha County and Milwaukee County sheriff's offices; only the Milwaukee Police Department responded, citing changes it made three months earlier and saying it is reviewing Flock's recommendations.
The rollout puts the burden of adopting stricter retention and search limits on individual agencies rather than the vendor or state law, leaving local councils and oversight bodies to decide whether recommended safeguards become binding policy.
Key facts
- Flock's recommendations include reducing data retention from 30 days to 7 days, offense-based sharing filters, and automated audit flagging.
- The changes are voluntary; participating agencies are not required to implement them.
- MPD Detective Tehrangi Chapman faces charges for allegedly using the system to track two people for personal reasons; the allegations surfaced during an investigation into MPD officer Josue Ayala, who took a plea deal over using the system to track his ex.
- TMJ4 reported Brookfield police stopped a vehicle over a flag that should have been removed from the system.
- Using the crowdsourced site DeFlock, TMJ4 identified nearly 15 cameras near the UW-Milwaukee campus; nearby residents interviewed said they had not known the cameras were there.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Flock rolls out new recommendations for law enforcement following growing surveillance and privacy concerns (TMJ4 News, August 13, 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 August 14, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.