New Bedford police won't renew Flock license plate camera contract

NEW BEDFORD The New Bedford Police Department will not renew its contract with Flock Safety, the company behind the license plate reader cameras the city switched off in August, and the agreement will end when it expires Nov. 12.

"Deputy Derek Belong sent written notice confirming the department would not renew the contract," police spokesperson Holly Huntoon wrote Friday in an email to The New Bedford Light. "That notice was being provided more than 30 days before the contract's expiration."

The confirmation came a day after the City Council gave final approval to an ordinance barring the city from using license plate readers. The same day councilors voted, Mayor Jon Mitchell <a href="new-bedford-two-police-officers-fired-flock-license-plate-reader-misuse-oct-22-2026.html">fired two police officers</a> the department found had misused the system.

What the council passed

Councilors <a href="new-bedford-city-council-votes-ban-flock-license-plate-cameras-oct-22-2026.html">voted 8-3 Thursday night</a> to pass the ordinance, the same margin as its initial approval Sept. 24. Councilors at Large Naomi Carney and Brian Gomes and Ward 3 Councilor Shawn Oliver voted no both times. Eight votes clears the two-thirds of the 11-member council needed to override a veto.

The ordinance bars city departments from "acquiring, purchasing, leasing, licensing, renewing, expanding, deploying, operating, or materially modifying automated license plate readers and mass location-tracking technologies," and from entering into or continuing contracts for them. City money cannot be spent in ways that conflict with it. It was amended from its original version so it does not reach ordinary security cameras, body-worn cameras, in-car video, traffic-management systems or other tools that do not allow consistent tracking of people or vehicles.

Councilor at Large Shane Burgo, who wrote the ordinance and chairs the Committee on Ordinances, said after the vote that he hopes the Mitchell administration signs it. "Doing so would demonstrate good faith in its stated interest in developing meaningful safeguards and regulations for surveillance technology," he said. "This debate has never been about opposing public safety. It is about recognizing that public safety and individual privacy are not mutually exclusive."

The department's case for the cameras

The department acquired the Flock system in 2024, before Police Chief Jason Thody took over. In a June question-and-answer page, the department said Flock had helped in homicide, robbery, shooting, stolen vehicle, break-in, vandalism and missing person investigations, and that in several cases its information "contributed to arrests, the recovery of stolen property, and the issuance of criminal warrants."

The department said then that the cameras capture plates and vehicle details and do not use facial recognition, that data not saved for an investigation is deleted after 30 days, and that every search leaves an audit trail. It shared data with about 125 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts and within 50 miles of the city, and said federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had no access.

Thody suspended the system the week of Aug. 11 while he reviewed how it had been used. "Flock can be a valuable investigative tool, but we also recognize that technologies like this raise legitimate questions about privacy, access, information sharing, and oversight," he said at the time. Mitchell, speaking on WBSM in September after a committee advanced the ban, said councilors had "rushed into things" and that with the technology disabled, "we can have a level-headed discussion about this stuff."

What happens next

Councilors are scheduled to take up rules for license plate readers Monday, Oct. 26. Burgo has said the ban is meant to hold until the council writes detailed rules that would replace it and let police use the technology again. Thody has proposed his own rules, backing audits, training and limits on how long data is kept while asking that police keep control of day-to-day decisions such as where cameras go.

The ordinance now goes to Mitchell, who can sign or veto it. Without a renewal, the city's Flock agreement ends Nov. 12, and any new contract would be barred if the ordinance becomes law.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.