The Flock indicated in April of 2025 in documents obtained in a public records request that they have verbal confirmation from Watertown Police to install 8 cameras across the City. Meeting minutes from the Watertown City Council meeting on April 8, 2025 confirm the allocation of $24,000 to install the cameras.

A public records request received Dec 2, 2025 indicated eight cameras are to be installed with a contract value of $45,936 signed by City Manager George Proakis on Sep 11, 2025.

The contract includes infamous clause 5.3 in which Flock reserves the right to disclose the data to law enforcement, government authorities, or third parties if Flock has a “good faith belief” that access is reasonably necessary.

Watertown PD published a Flock FAQ section on their website. It indicates that only the license plate is captured and images are not taken of pedestrians of cyclists, despite technical analysis of the cameras proving this to be misleading information provided by Flock to its customers. As seen before, Flock misleads its customers and the customers are not technically savvy enough to push back/understand vulnerabilities or misleading statements. It is unknown how the launch of this FAQ was communicated with residents, or if any public input was solicited as part of the decision to install Flock cameras in the City.

Watertown PD is attempting to get ahead of the bad press with the deployment of these systems, but indicate lack a fundamental understanding of how the company and their services work.  Firstly, In their FAQ, Watertown PD indicates that they own the footage and are the only ones with access to the data:

This is clearly stated otherwise in clause 5.3 of the Flock contract, but again City officials are demonstrated to be incapable of understanding the implications of these technologies or the contract they signed.

Credit is due for the City having published this FAQ section prior to deployment, likely after having seen the backlash of neighboring cities where the cameras were installed quietly. Watertown PD indicate they will make the audit findings of the search history public, which is positive, as well as not sharing data with other agencies which is a valiant effort but again is trounced by clause 5.3 of the Flock contract and shows a misunderstanding of how Flock controls the data, not Watertown PD.

Flock typically allows 45 day no risk trials, so it is imperative to act soon to prevent Watertown from installing these permanently. Email your councilors and City Manager.

Replicating a surveillance technology ordinance like Boston, Cambridge, or Somerville can ensure Flock, or other invasive ALPRs, remain out of Watertown. Gather a group of residents and push for the implementation of one, or speak with your local representatives and tell them to keep Flock out of Watertown.

If you would like to be connected with other activists in Watertown, send us an email (contact info at bottom of page) and we can connect you with other interested residents.

A public records request once the cameras are deployed of footage from a specific camera for a certain time frame, or all data related to a vehicle’s license plate over a certain time frame is a useful challenge to see how the department responds. Courts in Washington have declared that this is public data, despite the desire of police departments to not share this information. Quincy Police recently shared 12 hours worth of images to a requester. This request can be done anonymously but has to be done via email at the link below.