Increasingly fervent community protests and reports of police abuse have led a surging number of jurisdictions to cut ties with the commercial surveillance firm Flock Safety.

Momentum has been building for more than a year, with cities like Austin, Texas; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Eugene, Oregon already having ended contracts with Flock. But recent weeks have seen the issue approach a tipping point, with the state governments of Texas and Florida significantly restricting Flock use in the past two weeks. 

It’s not just big cities and states that are walking away from the company. An analysis by the digital rights nonprofit Secure Justice shows that more than 90 cities and counties nationwide terminated Flock contracts in the month of August alone. Since 2021, Secure Justice has tracked more than 200 municipal Flock contract terminations, underscoring the significance of the August uptick.

“The backlash is definitely gaining momentum,” said Jake Laperruque, a surveillance expert at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “It certainly has caught fire and has become kind of a quintessential issue to people of ‘these are surveillance technologies and powers that are really scary and dangerous in what they can do and there aren't basic safeguards.’”

Florida