Two Minnesota cities learned this fall that canceling a contract with Flock Safety is easier said than done. Plymouth voted to end its deal in September. Dayton asked the company to stop work. Both cities are still dealing with the fallout.
Plymouth’s city council voted in September to terminate its agreement with the license plate reader company. For more than a month, nothing happened. The cameras stayed mounted, powered, and recording. The city received no acknowledgment of its request at all.
Police Chief Eric Fadden eventually stopped waiting for a reply. He directed city staff to physically disconnect the camera power cords, so the devices could not scan plates in the meantime.
“After hearing nothing for more than a week, I directed our staff to disconnect the power cords from the cameras in order to be sure that they are not functioning or recording plates,” Fadden told The Drive.
Roughly twenty miles away, Dayton hit a different problem. Flock acknowledged the city’s request and said removal could take up to sixty days. That timeline was acceptable to local officials. What followed was not.
According to Dayton’s local government, Flock sent a maintenance crew and reconnected two cameras inside city limits without authorization. The work happened after the police department specifically asked the company not to complete the order.
The city posted a statement on Facebook describing the sequence. Police learned of a Flock maintenance work order on September 17, 2026. The city notified Flock the next day that the program was on hold and that no work orders should be completed. The camera was placed back into service anyway.
Flock spokesperson Andrew Smith defended the company’s record in a statement to The Verge. “We are proud of the impact our technology has had in Plymouth,” he said. The company has not publicly explained the Dayton work order.
The disputes arrive as a growing number of towns reconsider automated license plate readers. Residents have raised concerns about location tracking, data retention, and cameras installed without public debate. Some cities are now finding that exit clauses matter as much as the original terms.
For Plymouth and Dayton, the lesson is practical. A contract termination is only as good as the vendor’s willingness to honor it. When a company keeps the hardware running after a vote, the city has to act on its own.
Source: The Verge — Flock keeps ignoring requests to cancel its contracts
Related: Flock CEO Admits ‘We Got This One Wrong’ as Surveillance Rules Tighten
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