Yankton votes to ban Flock cameras while county plans to continue use

30 August 2026.

Ord, Nebraska became the first Nebraska municipality to vote for removing automatic license plate reader cameras operated by Flock Safety. The city council voted unanimously in early August 2026 to remove two cameras within city limits, even though Valley County owns the equipment. The cameras were installed in February 2025 after the county sheriff and city council approved the deployment through a federal grant program, with initial support from city leadership for their potential crime-fighting applications.

The removal vote followed weeks of public concern about privacy implications. Residents reported learning about the cameras months after installation and expressed frustration at the lack of public notice before deployment. Data records showed that more than 450,000 searches of the county's plate data occurred in a single month, with access granted to over 3,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, including federal entities.

Valley County supervisors have indicated they intend to keep seven remaining Flock cameras deployed throughout the county despite the city's action. The sheriff's office characterized the cameras as essential given staffing shortages following the loss of Ord's police department. Meanwhile, privacy advocates including the ACLU of Nebraska have challenged the technology as part of an expanding surveillance network, though federal courts have consistently upheld license plate photography in public spaces as constitutional.

Readers can check whether their own city or county has approved or is considering ALPR camera deployments by requesting records from local law enforcement and municipal governments.

Read the original reporting: Yankton Press & Dakotan.