Overview
- Police defended the system at a Wednesday night council meeting, saying Sterling Heights operates 24 Flock cameras, deletes unflagged records after 30 days, conducts monthly audits of searches, and uses the system about 10 to 20 times per day.
- Council members and residents pressed officials for usage data, accountability, and limits on which outside agencies may query records, and the police offered demonstrations to show how searches are logged and tied to case numbers.
- Council members discussed drafting an ordinance that would make misuse of Flock data a misdemeanor and explore ways to block access by departments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement partnerships while the city’s contract faces automatic renewal in December unless reviewed.
- Critics and activists say Flock acts like a data broker that allows extensive partner access without warrants, point to published camera maps and past reports of improper queries, and argue aggregation of plate reads can reveal people’s movements over time.
- The Sterling Heights debate sits inside a wider legal and policy scramble that includes Connecticut’s new law banning immigration and abortion‑related uses of ALPR data, mixed federal court rulings such as the Norfolk case with appeals pending, and a wave of local contract reviews that could change how cities govern automated plate readers.