Rhode Island ALPR pause set to expire as civil liberties groups say they were excluded from state review

First reported: October 19, 2026 · 4 sources

Rhode Island's 60-day pause on new automated license plate reader installations, ordered by Governor Dan McKee on Aug. 18, was set to expire Monday, with State Police saying they were finalizing new policies governing the technology. In an Oct. 9 letter to State Police Colonel Darnell Weaver, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance, the Office of the Public Defender, and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England said the Department of Public Safety working group made no effort to solicit public input, and offered their own recommendations on retention, sharing, and oversight. Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association Executive Director Sidney Wordell said he had read the letter and that it raised nothing the working group was not already aware of.

Why this matters

The dispute tests who gets a seat at the table when a state writes surveillance rules — police associations and municipal groups were named stakeholders in the governor's order, while defense and civil liberties organizations say they were not consulted.

Key facts

McKee's Aug. 18 order directed the Department of Public Safety to conduct a 60-day comprehensive review and to work with stakeholders including the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association and the League of Cities and Towns.
Four communities — South Kingstown, Narragansett, Glocester, and North Kingstown — voted to cancel Flock contracts before the pause; Tiverton's Town Council voted in July to approve four cameras not yet installed.
Woonsocket's City Council gave first passage on Sept. 17 to an amended ordinance regulating its 15 Flock cameras, with a second vote required.
Three Providence City Council members were scheduled to introduce an ordinance Thursday to ban the technology and require deactivation; Police Chief Oscar Perez said he would have welcomed input before it was drafted.
The four organizations asked for retention and sharing limits and bans on using ALPR to monitor constitutionally protected activity or aid federal immigration enforcement; Wordell objected to limiting use to specified serious offenses.

Sources

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

Flock camera opponents say they were left out of state-led policy review (The Boston Globe, October 19, 2026)
Flock camera opponents say they were left out of state-led policy review (Providence Business News, October 16, 2026)
Flock camera opponents say they were left out of state-led policy review (Providence Business News, October 16, 2026)
Flock camera opponents say they were left out of state-led policy review (Rhode Island Current, October 15, 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 October 20, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.