Some communities have already proved this point. Austin, Texas, paused its Flock program after local pushback last June; Evanston, Illinois, terminated theirs in August. According to NPR, at least 30 localities “have either deactivated their Flock cameras or canceled their contracts since the beginning of 2025.”
Ithaca, New York’s anti-Flock group is close to doing the same. Flock Off was founded last summer after the city installed 22 ALPRs in 2024. There are now more than 50 in the whole of Tompkins County. The cameras were funded by a state grant for combating gun violence, which allocated $69,300 to the city and $160,650 to the county for Flock cameras. But researchers question whether the equipment has actually reduced violent crime. “There’s no basis in the argument that the cameras have contributed to any sort of decline in gun violence in the area,” said Eric Simmons, a student studying at Cornell Law School’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic. News outlets such as the Ithaca Journal and 607 News Now report that police have used the cameras to find car thieves and a lost elderly man, but do not mention violent crime. Ithaca Police Chief Thomas Kelly did not respond to a request for comment.
Through petitions, public comments, and the press, Flock Off has somewhat stymied its namesake. In October, the county sheriff’s office stopped sharing Flock data with counties that partner with ICE. That didn’t placate Flock Off, which held a protest outside Ithaca’s City Hall on February 4. A resident named Dirk Trachy donned a sinister-looking camera costume that stretched nine feet tall, while a local musician released an anti-Flock song: “These birds ain’t like the others / they steal your data and your family’s too,” the lyrics read.
