Newtown Legislative Council votes to deactivate 18 ALPR cameras
By ยท Updated 2 Sep 2026
29 August 2026. [AI first draft. Verify every fact against the source before publishing.]
The Newtown Legislative Council voted on August 19 to approve a resolution prohibiting the installation of new stationary license plate reader cameras and requiring the deactivation and covering of the 18 existing Flock Safety cameras already deployed in town. Two days after the council meeting, the Newtown Police Department agreed to comply with the resolution in a public announcement.
The council action marked a reversal of an earlier decision by the Police Commission to approve the stationary Flock cameras, which had been in use for less than two years. The Newtown Police Department has operated mobile Flock license plate readers in patrol vehicles for over a decade. The August 19 meeting included a presentation from Police Chief David Kullgren defending the cameras as a public safety tool, citing case closure improvements and specific instances where the technology helped locate missing persons, stolen vehicles, and criminal suspects. Kullgren emphasized that data retention is limited to 30 days and referenced Connecticut laws enacted to restrict use for immigration enforcement, reproductive health investigations, and tracking based on protected characteristics.
Council members expressed concerns about data security and corporate control despite these safeguards. Several councilmen questioned whether Flock, as a private company, truly maintains municipal control over collected data and raised the risk of misuse, pointing to documented abuses in other jurisdictions. One councilman noted that Connecticut has 50 municipalities using stationary Flock cameras among its 169 towns. The debate centered on whether the demonstrated benefits to criminal investigations outweighed privacy and oversight concerns about a for-profit company retaining access to surveillance data.
Residents seeking to understand their town's surveillance infrastructure can request copies of council meeting minutes, the text of the August 19 resolution, and records related to the previous Police Commission approval of the Flock contract, as well as check local agendas for future camera and technology contract discussions.
Read the original reporting: The Newtown Bee.