Littleton, Mass. police apologize for Flock rollout, order cameras removed after reactivation

Event: August 4, 2026 · First reported: August 4, 2026 · 4 sources

Littleton Police Chief Douglas Landry issued a public statement on August 4, 2026 acknowledging that the department's rollout of six Flock Safety license plate reading cameras involved little communication with town officials or residents, and said a public forum should have come first. The town said the cameras were de-energized in May after Town Meeting defunded the program and the Select Board voted to shut them down, but officials discovered last week that they were operating again. Landry said Flock technicians restored power under the company's standard procedure because the town had not explicitly told Flock it intended to keep the cameras off. Flock Safety did not immediately respond to the Lowell Sun's request for comment.

Why this matters

The episode illustrates how gaps between a vendor's default operating procedures and a municipality's shutdown decision can leave surveillance equipment collecting data without local authorization, and it shows a police department publicly conceding that community input came after deployment rather than before.

Key facts

Six Flock ALPR cameras were installed in Littleton earlier in 2026; a Lowell Sun caption states five were allegedly found reactivated.
Littleton Electric Light & Water Departments de-energized the units in May after Town Meeting defunded the program and the Select Board voted to power them down.
Landry said Flock service technicians reinstalled power shortly afterward, and that the town never explicitly instructed Flock to disable the system or verified it stayed off.
Landry says he has ordered a remote shutdown, deactivated and locked all LPD user logins, and submitted a work order for Flock to physically remove the cameras.
The department pledged the cameras will not be used again without explicit Select Board direction and public input; Flock had not commented as of publication.

Timeline

August 4, 2026'We want to be direct with our community': Littleton Police address reactivation of Flock cameras
August 10, 2026Littleton Drops Flock Safety After Cameras Silently Restart

Sources

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

'We want to be direct with our community': Littleton Police address reactivation of Flock cameras (Lowell Sun, August 4, 2026)
Littleton Drops Flock Safety After Cameras Silently Restart (NewsBreak: Local News & Alerts, August 10, 2026)
Littleton Drops Flock Safety After Cameras Silently Restart (Gadget Review, August 10, 2026)
Littleton Drops Flock Safety After Cameras Silently Restart (Yahoo, August 10, 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 17, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.