Documented Incident
Methuen cancels Flock contract after councilor learns Lawrence police searched her plate
First reported: September 25, 2026 · 1 source
Methuen, Massachusetts has terminated its contract with Flock Safety, with the city's automated license plate readers ordered covered immediately and removed. The decision followed City Councilor Patricia Valley's discovery, via a public transparency database, that the Lawrence Police Department had searched her plate once; Lawrence police cited an active May 2025 hit-and-run investigation, while Valley said she was never told she was a person of interest. Mayor David P. "D.J." Beauregard Jr. and Acting Police Chief Jamie Moore said in a joint statement that no Methuen officers misused the system, but that Flock did not provide sufficient data protections or local control. City officials say they still intend to pursue an alternate ALPR system that meets their privacy and data-control standards.
The cancellation turns on cross-agency access rather than local misuse, raising questions about how neighboring departments can query a city's ALPR data and whether residents are ever notified. Methuen's choice to drop Flock while seeking a different vendor offers other communities a model distinct from both outright rejection and regulation-in-place.
Key facts
- Methuen ordered its Flock cameras covered immediately and removed after canceling the contract; the city had earlier paused additional installations and conducted an audit.
- Councilor Valley, who had voted to approve the cameras, found that Lawrence police searched her plate once; the reported figure of 359 referred to an officer's overall search activity, not searches of her plate.
- City leaders said no Methuen officers misused the system, attributing the decision to inadequate data protections and local control from Flock.
- More than 25 Massachusetts municipalities have ended, suspended, or declined to renew Flock contracts as of this month, per Boston 25 News; Haverhill voted in August to draft an ordinance regulating its 19 cameras instead.
- Less than a week before the cancellation, former Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon pleaded guilty to 17 criminal counts including perjury and procurement fraud, in a separate case.
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Methuen Yanks Flock Cameras After Councilor Finds Her Plate Searched Once (Hoodline, September 25, 2026)
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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 28, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.