Another town, another line drawn. Salem, Massachusetts, just pulled the plug on its contract with Flock Safety, the outfit peddling automatic license plate readers. Police there had sung their praises, saying the cameras were key to solving most major investigations, a real workhorse for law enforcement. But even with those reported wins, the city decided the cost wasn't just a number on a ledger. They’re calling it quits over data privacy concerns.
It’s the same old story. Give a company a key to the data pantry, and sooner or later, someone starts asking who else has a copy of that key. People get nervous about every trip to the grocery store, every late night drive, being logged and stored. It’s not about catching the bad guys anymore; it’s about everyone’s daily life ending up in some corporate server farm, a digital paper trail for regular folks just trying to get from point A to point B. The city decided that kind of constant surveillance, no matter how shiny the sales pitch, just didn't sit right.
- Salem, MA will end its contract with Flock Safety.
- The city cited data privacy concerns as the reason.
- Police previously credited the ALPRs with solving "nearly every major investigation."