u/EncryptDN

Fox Valley residents will be giving a presentation on what Flock cameras are, how they work, and how the company has been lying to city council members, police, and residents. After the short presentation we will welcome questions and comments from the public and do our best to answer questions clearly and honestly. Meet in the Orlady room. All are welcome, even if you support ALPR technology and the Flock system. Let's come together and have a civil and honest discussion about Flock.

Tomorrow night at 7pm at city hall the Appleton city council is voting on a very weak resolution on ALPR use in Appleton. Despite 6+ months of community advocacy from many individuals with deep subject matter expertise, none of our suggestions are being taken seriously by council members that are parading themselves around as champions of this issue (Fenton + Van Zeeland).

Alder Fenton's own words here indicate that the performative resolution her and Alder Van Zeeland have authored is meant to fast-track another ALPR vendor back into Appleton after Flock cameras were taken down and disabled on June 30th.

APD has confirmed they are in ongoing talks with Axon about their ALPR tech, which has identical privacy and security concerns. APD and other local police departments from the region met with Axon to discuss their ALPR tool just one day after Appleton's mayor announced the city would stop using Flock. That meeting happened on May 7th. A source from within the city also tells me that it was the mayor's plan for Axon to purchase the Flock cameras and integrate them within their network. This is why the cameras remained up and operational for nearly two months after the announcement to stop using them.

If you care about ALPR or resisting reckless deployments of mass surveillance tech in Appleton streets, please consider showing up tomorrow night at city hall at 7pm and make your views known. These jokers have proven they are intent on spending our tax dollars on haphazard deployments of controversial technology without a serious accounting of the facts and are privately laughing at and disregarding community concerns while publicly pretending they are deeply sympathetic and on top of things.

Yes, I understand that sharing this sensitive information from city leaders burns the bridge to them. But their private mockery and plotting has shown me that the bridge never existed in the first place.

Need to master this technique in order to finally hit platinum 😂

On 7/15 at 7pm, the Appleton Common Council will vote on Resolution #9-R-26. This res would add some reporting requirements around ALPR use and require additional public input periods during a tool's consideration. Ultimately this resolution doesn't establish meaningful guardrails and oversight to this technology and could clear the way for Flock or Axon ALPR to return to Appleton without needing to make any changes to their product. It would be up to citizens to resist these powerful surveillance vendors, all over again!

Some council members are pushing for and reviewing the Citizen-Authored Ordinance (CAO) which calls for comprehensive technical, procedural, and operational guardrails. In its current form, which is linked below, the CAO would make abuse, misuse, and unauthorized data sharing much more difficult, quickly discoverable, and more transparent. If the council won't legislate these protections into place, we need a moratorium on ALPR tech.

Appleton and Fox Valley residents are organizing to show up to the 7/15 Appleton city council meeting to request the city send Resolution #9-R-26 back to committee for further modification to align with the protections outlined in the CAO, or place a moratorium on the technology until sufficient protections exist.

Show up and make your voice heard!

The CAO documents under consideration include the ordinance, a companion document to help cities with implementation, and a "plain language" guide to assist people in understanding the contents of the proposal. The folder link below contains PDF and markdown versions of these documents.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/1S46DK1XS0#3ffahpHCEEEg

The meeting itself will likely be moved to the council chambers due to public attendance.

Feel free to steal the image and spread it elsewhere

Show up and make your voice heard next Wednesday, June 24th at 5:30pm. City Hall, 6th floor. Let's send a message to city leadership that we want the cameras taken down ASAP and that we want comprehensive and strong ordinance with robust data access controls and serious oversight before we allow any more AI surveillance technology vendors to sell in our city. Video clipped from last night's common council meeting.

The City of Green Bay has 42 Flock cameras in operation (source). Recently, neighboring communities have cancelled their Flock contracts over privacy concerns and Flock salespeople telling multiple lies during the sales process.

Flock cameras are currently deployed in many US cities, invading the privacy and surveilling millions of Americans, including residents of Green Bay. Flock's AI-powered cameras collect detailed searchable records of every vehicle’s movements - not just of vehicles whose owners are suspected of criminal wrongdoing. No warrant required. This data can reveal sensitive travel and lifestyle patterns.

It has been proven that data within the Flock system is shared widely beyond the borders of the Green Bay community. The data can be secretly obtained by the Federal government via National Security Letter, which is authorized by the Patriot Act and does not require a judicial warrant or judicial oversight. Our local police departments would be powerless to stop this data access. If a gag order was attached, it would legally prohibit Flock from telling the police department about this data sharing and we’d have no way of discovering it is happening. This is because Flock does not use zero-access end-to-end encryption. Very few guardrails and regulations exist for this new technology.

Since Flock is built to maximize resident travel record data sharing, that puts us at risk. It also creates taxpayer liability in the event of misuse. Recently Menasha and Milwaukee police officers were caught using the Flock system to stalk ex-romantic partners. In the case of the Menasha officer, we know that he was only caught because the stalking victim told police she suspected Flock was used to stalk her. We have no way of knowing how often these abuses occur.

The ALCU and 404 Media have also reported that ICE has been using Flock data in their enforcement operations.

Appleton announced they will be ending their contract with Flock yesterday: https://www.wbay.com/2026/05/06/city-appleton-stop-using-flock-cameras/

Oshkosh ended their contract and disabled their cameras two weeks ago: https://www.nbc26.com/oshkosh/oshkosh-moves-to-cancel-just-approved-flock-camera-contract

Other Wisconsin communities like Sturgeon Bay, Verona, and Dane County have also cancelled their Flock contracts in recent months due to these same issues.

How are residents of Green Bay thinking about and feeling about this issue? Have there been any discussions at the city council about this topic?