WCPO 9's Logan MacDonald covers everything Northern Kentucky. If you have a story that you'd like Logan to look into or a news tip, email him at Logan@WCPO.com.
Newport residents, police and Flock Safety officials faced off Wednesday night over the possible purchase of automatic license plate reader cameras in the city.
"I trust our police, I don't trust Flock," Newport resident Jeff Richardson said at Wednesday night's town hall event. "There's voluminous information available that Flock shouldn't be trusted, and can't be."
The Newport Police Department is considering buying six Flock Safety cameras after piloting the technology across the city over the last several months.
WATCH: Newport neighbors, police, and Flock representatives face off over license plate reader concerns
"We started at 17 cameras and throughout this process we've narrowed down now to just the six that, if the city commission agreed on it, depending on our public input, we had six that we were going to keep," Newport Police Department Capt. Kevin Drohan said Wednesday night.
One of the central concerns raised by residents was how data collected by Newport cameras could be shared with federal agencies.
Bellevue resident Connor Hall pointed to a specific incident involving Flock Safety and federal data access in California.
"In Mountain View, California, Flock enabled a nationwide setting without police knowledge, in which federal agencies accessed local data. They terminated their contract," Hall said.
Kerry McCormack with Flock Safety's public affairs team said contract cancellations over concerns like those have been rare.
"For our 2025 numbers, about 30 customers canceled their contracts, where around 925 either renewed or came on with the company for the first time," McCormack said.
I asked McCormack directly about how Newport data would be shared with federal agencies, specifically following reports from May that the FBI was looking into gaining national access to automatic license plate reader data.
McCormack said he was not authorized to speak on the matter. WCPO then reached out to Flock Safety's media team with the same question. They said in part:
"We're not going to speculate on prospective deals. But it's worth noting that we already work with several federal agencies [flocksafety.com], all of whom are subject to the same obligations, constraints and transparency mechanisms that apply to every other Flock customer."
At Wednesday's meeting, Newport Police also presented an eight-page document outlining their proposed use of Flock technology and the guidelines governing it.
"Those policies will have a clear use of what you already use those license plate readers for," Drohan said. "Some limitations, the data retention periods, access restrictions, public transparency. There are audit requirements, and you know, other constitutional rights that we have to follow with those policies."
Drohan said future public meetings with the city commission will be scheduled and advertised once recommendations are finalized.
WCPO reached out to Flock Safety's media team with the questions below following Wednesday's meeting:
- Back in May, multiple national media outlets reported that the FBI was seeking access to ALPR data across the nation. Has FLOCK been in contact with any federal agencies about expanding federal access in such a way? If so, in what capacity?
- What safeguards or guidelines are in place currently as to how federal agencies can use FLOCK data?
- A resident brought up concerns about a perceived change in FLOCK policy regarding the sale of user data. As the company’s guidelines currently stand, are they able to sell user data to third party companies/agencies?
- Are they doing so as we speak?
Their full response is attached below:
"We're not going to speculate on prospective deals. But it's worth noting that we already work with several federal agencies [flocksafety.com], all of whom are subject to the same obligations, constraints and transparency mechanisms that apply to every other Flock customer.
We also rebuilt our product from the ground up, starting last year, to ensure all local customers could trust that they can use Flock in full compliance with local and state laws. A big part of that is our Audit Assistance tool[globenewswire.com].
Our customers own their data. If they ever want to share it with a federal agency, they must first make themselves discoverable — this setting is turned off by default. Cities cannot be seen by federal entities until they choose to become discoverable. The federal agency must then request access, and the local police department must accept the sharing relationship. There is also no daisy-chaining. For example, if Local Police Agency 1 shares with both a federal entity and Local Police Agency 2, but Local Police Agency 2 does not share with any federal entities, the federal entity cannot access Local Police Agency 2's data through those existing sharing relationships.
Flock never sells data and does not share data on behalf of customers. As our Terms and Conditions state, 'all right, title, and interest in and to Customer Data belong to and are retained by Customer.'"
Have a story idea or tip for WCPO 9 Northern Kentucky reporter Logan MacDonald? Email him at Logan@WCPO.com.
