Waltham

The Waltham Police Department has had Flock ALPR (Automated License Plate Reader) cameras installed throughout the city since at least September 2025. There is no record of community engagement, or any announcement of either the contract or the deployment of the surveillance technology. Waltham PD was initially sharing access to their Flock data with over 700 agencies across the country, including two federal agencies, providing a backdoor for ICE.

Our problem is not with Waltham PD. Waltham PD has relatively progressive leadership and has announced they will not be involved with civil immigration enforcement, and have limited communication with ICE. The concern is with Flock and how they mislead police departments about how data is handled.

The map below shows crowdsourced locations of known ALPRs.

Waltham PD performed 850 searches in the time period of the report. Three officers conducted 94% of all searches. Search reason, which is the alleged guardrail to prevent officer abuse, was used in vague manners that indicate either poor training or negligence. Reasons primarily include vague terms such crimenet, accident, suspicious incident, and “Irish traveler”. It is unclear how a legitimate audit of Officer search reasons could be conducted with the search reasons seen in this report.

Other interesting findings:

– US Postal Inspection Service, a federal agency, queried the database 3,937 times

– Braselton, GA’s police searches are in this database, whose chief was arrested in December 2025 under charges that he used Flock to harass citizens  

The full West Springfield Police Department Flock search audit is available here.

Update: City councilors, upon requests from constituents, urged WPD to limit sharing. WPD has since limited sharing to MA police and NESPIN (New England State Police Information Network). NESPIN contains police agencies outside of Waltham. It is also possible that agencies with whom WPD is sharing data in MA could collaborate with federal agencies.

Waltham PD could share Flock data with Federal agencies

Despite Waltham Police’s public assurance that they do not collaborate with ICE, their Flock sharing records indicate the clear possibility otherwise. The Flock sharing agreements show Waltham PD is sharing their Flock data with 559 other law enforcement agencies across the country including two federal agencies (USPS and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio). The data appears to be shared with law enforcement in 43 states, with agencies only in AK, HI, MN, MT, ND, OR, VT not receiving Waltham PD flock data.

This exhaustive article covers how this sharing effectively creates a back door for federal immigration enforcement to access data from police departments who did not explicitly share their Flock data with them. Benton County, WA is listed as one of the agencies with explicit sharing with US Border Patrol, and is also a department with whom Waltham PD shares their Flock data.

Sharing agreements data was extracted from Public Records Request #2, which can be found below.

A Police Records Request received November 3, 2025 includes among the following:

• Flock contract
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
• Purchase Order
• Sole Source letter

The request included a poorly formatted list of agencies with whom Waltham PD is sharing their Flock data (pages 54-68). Clarification was requested and a properly formatted PDF was received and is available here.

This was run through text recognition and is provided in a CSV file. May contain errors.

Documents obtained from a public records request outline communications between Waltham PD and Flock Safety throughout the negotiation process between January and July of 2025. This offers an inside perspective on how police departments approach these contracts, what services they are told they provide, and who is involved in the process. It also confirms Waltham PD intended to formulate policies surrounding the use, requested samples from other departments, but ultimately never implemented any prior to installation.

A Police Records Request received October 10, 2025 states that documents identifying the location and number of Flock Safety cameras installed does not exist, and that policies, guidelines, or standard operating procedures regarding the use of Flock Safety cameras and data also do not exist.

The ACLU of Massachusetts has an excellent article about Flock in Massachusetts, including this screenshot of the sales team at Flock’s communication with Waltham PD in March 2025.

Flock’s official transparency portal for Waltham as of 11/3/2025

Reddit posts

First post identifying a Flock camera in Waltham

Discussion around Waltham PD FOIA request indicating they have no policies surrounding the usage of Flock data

User discusses financial documents, likely obtained through FOIA request from Waltham PD

Mayor Jean McCarthy ignores Flock records request – note, this request likely should have gone to the Police, not the mayor, but the response leaves much room for improvement.

User summarizes resolution introduced to establish data policies

User summarizes Committee of the Whole discussion on 11/3/2025 where two members of Waltham Police Department were asked about the deployment of Flock cameras

Discussion surrounding updated FOIA request appealing the original request to Waltham PD