East Bridgewater Police to Cancel Flock Safety Contract After Resident Backlash

EAST BRIDGEWATER —August 21 — Police Chief Michael Jenkins announced Friday that the East Bridgewater Police Department will terminate its contract with surveillance company Flock Safety and remove the single automated license plate reader camera already installed in town, ending a program that drew sustained opposition from residents at a packed Select Board meeting earlier this month.

The department had begun installing four Flock automated license plate reader, or ALPR, cameras under a three-year, roughly $38,000 agreement paid for with federal drug asset forfeiture funds rather than municipal tax dollars. Only one camera was ever mounted, and Jenkins said the system had not become fully operational before he paused the rollout to allow for further review and public discussion.

“ALPR technology can be a valuable public safety tool, and we believed this system could help our officers investigate crimes and locate people in danger,” Jenkins said in a statement released through the department. “However, any technology we use must have the confidence of the community. Residents have raised legitimate questions about privacy, access to data, oversight and the safeguards needed to prevent misuse. After listening to those concerns and taking a closer look at the issue, I believe ending our agreement with Flock is the right decision for East Bridgewater.”

The department said it has not identified any misuse of the system or its data by an East Bridgewater officer or employee.

How It Got Here

The Select Board authorized the contract in June, and it was signed July 1. The first camera went up Aug. 5 on West Street without advance public notice — a sequence that became the central grievance at the board’s Aug. 10 meeting, where a standing-room-only crowd questioned third-party access to the data, the adequacy of the department’s audit provisions, and the possibility that plate records collected in East Bridgewater could be queried by federal immigration authorities through Flock’s national sharing network.

Jenkins defended the system at that meeting, telling residents it had already assisted in an armed robbery investigation and that the cameras capture license plates and vehicle attributes — not drivers or occupants — with unflagged data purged after 30 days. Residents countered that the objection was to the database itself. One told the board there is “a significant difference between a police officer seeing my vehicle” and “the government having a database capable of determining where my vehicle has been.”

The board had agreed to take up a formal pause at its Sept. 14 meeting and to consult town counsel on cancellation options. Friday’s announcement moots that timeline.

Jenkins said any future consideration of ALPR technology would include a review of the technology, its policies and safeguards, and an open discussion with the community. “This decision is not a judgment on the potential value of ALPR technology,” he said. “It is an acknowledgment that we need to weigh that value against the concerns surrounding its use.”

Why It Matters

East Bridgewater joins a growing list of Massachusetts communities backing away from Flock. Salem terminated its contract and removed its cameras in July, and Cambridge, Watertown, Framingham, Natick and Brookline have all declined or ended deployments. Rockland’s board tabled a six-camera proposal this month pending contract renegotiation. The regional network remains substantial — Quincy operates roughly 50 cameras, Weymouth 34, Pembroke six — meaning East Bridgewater drivers will still pass through Flock coverage on surrounding roads even with the town’s own camera gone.

Beacon Hill has yet to settle the question. The pending Driver Privacy Act (H.3755) would cap retention at 14 days, bar tracking tied to First Amendment activity, and require warrants for cross-agency access — leaving individual police chiefs and select boards, for now, to set the rules town by town.