Boynton Beach will not renew a software contract it has with the surveillance company Flock Safety, the subject of recent controversies nationwide.
City Commissioners voted unanimously on Sept. 16 to discontinue its $60,000 deal for the Atlanta-based company's digital dashboard once the contract ends Nov. 18.
The city's police department, however, will continue using the Flock cameras it bought in 2023.
The Flock-related controversies across the U.S. did not spur the commissioners' decision. It came instead after Police Chief Joe DeGiulio told commissioners that the department found software from other surveillance companies it contracts with are easier to use than Flock's.
Police will access services such as public-surveillance camera feeds through
other companies the city contracts with such as Avigilon, Motorola and Axon Enterprise.
Flock's software for surveillance cameras proved difficult to use
City officials hoped Flock's system would be a digital one-stop shop for accessing police body cameras, public-surveillance cameras and other cameras. Instead, accessing camera feeds and recordings was "significantly more time-consuming and difficult" than with software the city already uses, a staff report said.
In addition, the department has put restrictions in place on officers accessing data recorded by the city's license-plate scanners and cameras, DeGiulio said.
The department's restrictions mirror rules and recommendations Flock said in August it would launch in its software by year's end.
Boynton Beach police now need the numbers of cases they are working before searching someone's license-plate number in the scanners' databases, DeGiulio said. This requires officers to tie their searches to crimes they're investigating, he said.
The police department will keep the data the devices collect for seven days, down from 30, DeGiulio. Flock announced that recommendation in August.
The department also plans to restrict how it shares Flock data with other law-enforcement agencies, DeGiulio said. Police officials are also looking at restricting how many department personnel can access the city's surveillance data, and which crimes they can search it for, he said.
The department will present commissioners with a final draft of its Flock policy Oct. 6, DeGiulio said.
Those rules came after months of news reports nationwide of police misusing Flock data to spy on civilians such as ex-lovers or a woman seeking an abortion. The Florida Department of Transportation on Aug. 31 ordered Flock cameras removed from state-managed roadways by the end of September. Flock has said its software flags such misuse.
"You know, there's some uncomfortableness about the system," said Commissioner Aimee Kelley, whose husband, Michael Kelley, was a city police captain until retiring in July 2025.
Boynton canceled drone $100,000 contract with Flock in June
Commissioners on June 16 unanimously approved canceling a $100,000 a year contract with Flock for a drone the city ordered in 2025 after the company failed to deliver it. Rather than refund the payment, Flock agreed to credit the city on its future bills.
Commissioners voted 4-1 at that meeting to spend more than $2.2 million from 2027 to 2034 buying three first-responder drones from Axon, the Arizona-based company formerly known as TASER International. Kelley voted against it, saying the cost of the purchases could force city officials to deny raises to police officers, firefighters, paramedics and municipal workers.
Commissioners in 2023, including Kelley, approved a $198,500, three-year contract with Flock for 10 license-plate scanners and one gunshot detector from the company.
Email news tips and ideas to Chris Persaud at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boynton to end Flock Safety software contract but still use cameras
