Waltham residents protest Flock camera deployment

17 August 2026. [AI first draft. Verify every fact against the source before publishing.]

Residents gathered near Main and Prospect streets in Waltham on Sunday to protest the city's deployment of Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras. The Waltham Police Department signed a two-year agreement with Flock Safety in June 2025 for 16 cameras at a cost of $96,000. The department funded the purchase with court-seized money, which did not require City Council approval, and did not announce the acquisition publicly before installation. City officials later stated that the Law Department had not reviewed the contract before it was signed.

The police department operates the cameras under an internal policy that requires an incident number and stated reason for data searches, stipulates that information is normally deleted after 30 days, and prohibits use for immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment, or personal purposes. The department has stated it does not share information with federal agencies and limits sharing to approved Massachusetts law enforcement agencies. According to Flock Safety, the cameras capture still images of vehicles, recording license plate information and vehicle details, then checking plates against state and national crime databases. Flock announced on August 13 that it would reduce its recommended default data retention period from 30 days to 7 days following criticism.

Protesters criticized the procurement process, noting the lack of public comment periods or City Council discussion before installation. Critics raised concerns about data practices, citing reporting by 404 Media and research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation documenting thousands of Flock searches nationwide tied to immigration enforcement and an Illinois audit finding the company had given U.S. Customs and Border Protection unauthorized access to state data. During the protest, participants observed that wires connected to the camera at the protest location appeared to have been cut, though no official confirmation was immediately available about the status.

Residents can check their own city's procurement records to determine whether automated license plate reader contracts were approved by council vote, what funding sources were used, and whether data retention policies and use restrictions have been formalized in public documents or remain internal departmental guidelines.

Read the original reporting: Waltham Times.