Dominoes fall: More than a dozen Wisconsin communities drop Flock cameras amid privacy, data sharing concerns
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Dominoes are falling across Wisconsin as more communities are pausing or ending their use of Flock camera technology.
On Friday, Sept. 4, more counties and cities shared concerns with who has access to their data and how it's being used.
Racine, Fond du Lac, and Winnebago counties joined the growing list of communities ending their programs, as did several cities and towns. They say they do not trust how the Flock company is using your data.
Just this week alone, more than a dozen localities announced a pause or outright end to their Flock programs.
Most of the concerns focus on the use of data: outside agencies have accessed Wisconsin data through FOIA requests.
Wisconsin agencies say Flock never told them that was possible.
"This is not what we agreed to," Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said Friday, "And it is not what the public was led to believe."
Schmaling said Racine County will cut ties with Flock and find another vendor. "The technology did not fail the public. Flock failed the public," he wrote in a statement.
The City of Sheboygan is ending its Flock contract. Last week, crews started bagging the cameras.
In a video on social media, Mayor Ryan Sorenson said, "First and foremost, folks can trust the programs that we have. Quite frankly, Flock has violated that trust."
In Fond du Lac County, "The loss of control over our own investigative data" led all agencies there to also drop Flock Friday.
As are all agencies in Winnebago County, because "protecting the integrity of investigative data… and maintaining public trust are paramount."
Nearly every agency supported the technology itself and cited success stories.
Waupun Mayor Rohn Bishop told us, "I think it's right for our community because Waupun is using it in the right way."
Bishop said no one seemed to notice his city has used the cameras for several years until recently.
Waupun officers are required to submit their name, case number, and detailed information for any Flock searches. And Waupun does not participate in the national Flock data program.
Bishop said, "So if another police agency wants to see something that we have, they have to ask permission from the Waupun Police Department."
But Bishop said recent concerns elsewhere led to vandalism in Waupun.
They're deactivating their cameras over the weekend because it's too costly to fix them.
"Anytime you take away a tool that keeps the city safer, you make it less safe," Bishop said.
Earlier this year, the City of Kenosha dropped Flock for a different company—Axon—because the city didn't trust how Flock was using Kenosha's data.
Earlier this week, Milwaukee County moved to tighten restrictions on how Flock technology is used.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told us Friday, "We have started to move forward with making sure that we have guardrails in place."
But Milwaukee County Supervisor Justin Bielinski wants to terminate the contract altogether. He's first calling on Sheriff Denita Ball to disable the county's cameras. Bielinski and five cosponsors have a resolution to ban them if she doesn't.
And the City of Milwaukee is keeping its Flock program, despite vocal opposition from many areas.
On Friday, MPD's new public dashboard went live.
That database can be accessed here.
We reached out to Flock Safety with an interview request and questions about these privacy issues. We did not get a response.