Wisconsin Agencies Reconsider Flock Camera Contracts Amid Data Retention Concerns
A dozen Wisconsin agencies have begun to pull or scrutinize their contracts with Flock Safety, a company providing license plate reader cameras, following revelations that Flock retains and markets camera data beyond what agencies understood. Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling ordered all Flock cameras in his county removed after learning the company was building a separate dataset from his cameras' images, retaining it for up to five years, and marketing it to other government and private customers. Similar actions were taken by agencies in Fond du Lac County and the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, while Kenosha and Sheboygan have contract terminations pending council approval. Wausau and Marathon County's contracts contain similar provisions allowing Flock to anonymize and retain vehicle descriptions, locations, and timestamps permanently for use in other products, despite public statements from local police indicating data is deleted after 30 days. 
