DEFLOCK OKC August 18: the council renewed Flock, 5 to 3. See exactly what happened, in the chief's own words. What happened →
CONTRACT RENEWED AUG 18 · 2,200+ SIGNED TO END IT

Get the FLOCK out
of OKC.

OKC residents are demanding three things from City Council: don't renew the Flock contract. Remove the cameras. Don't sign with another ALPR vendor. On August 18, 2026, the Council renewed the contract anyway, adding only a narrow ban on sharing data with federal agencies. Flock keeps the cameras, the data, and its hold on both. More than 2,200 Oklahomans signed to end the contract, not regulate it. Three council members voted no: Cooper, Hamon, and Pennington. The contract says 90 cameras. The community map shows 299. Surveillance does not make our city safer - and we're done being asked to trust private companies that have been caught lying about what they collect.

90 Cameras per contract
??? Verified by the city
August 18, 2026 · The vote

The council renewed Flock, 5 to 3. We recorded exactly how it went down.

The police chief spent an hour reading the vendor's own playbook, got the facts about the cameras wrong, and refused to tell the council who receives the data or where the cameras are. It is all on video, and we broke it down line by line: what he said, what the record shows, and who in the horseshoe was even paying attention.

See What Happened →

What is Flock doing in Oklahoma City?

It's not just license plate readers anymore. It's a surveillance platform now under federal constitutional challenge, run by a vendor with a documented pattern of lying to city councils. Seven concrete reasons it should concern every OKC resident.

🔍

Oversight They Won't Let You Verify

In March 2026, OKCPD admitted in writing it had no access controls, no use policy, no audit procedures, and no discipline standards for Flock. Only after residents filled council chambers and filed records requests did the department start advertising a 30-day manual review plus a "continuous AI audit," the AI audit being Flock's own software auditing Flock's own system. Then a resident asked for the log that would prove it works, and the city denied it. Their only published ALPR policy (Manual §5-118) still covers vehicle-mounted readers, not Flock's static cameras. An audit no one is allowed to inspect is a press release, not oversight.

🚨

Breaks Oklahoma Law and OKCPD's Own Rules

Oklahoma statute 47 O.S. §7-606.1 limits ALPR use to insurance enforcement. OKCPD uses Flock far beyond that. Their own Operations Manual states ALPR data "will not be shared as part of a law enforcement information database" - but Flock's entire business model is exactly that: 5,000+ agencies and 100,000+ cameras sharing data nationwide. On August 18, OKCPD confirmed 109 local agencies can already pull OKC's Flock data, and when Councilwoman Hamon asked for the list, Chief Bacy said, "No, ma'am."

🌐

Your Data Leaves OKC - and It's Not Secure

Every photo from every camera leaves city limits and lands on Flock's private servers, beyond the reach of any public records request. The devices have numerous confirmed security vulnerabilities and can be compromised in 30 seconds. Independent researchers found at least 60 cameras streaming live to the open internet - including one pointed at a children's playground. No password. No encryption. Anyone with a search engine could watch.

📹

It's Not Just Plates Anymore

Flock's newer Condor cameras use AI-powered pan, tilt, and zoom to automatically follow people - not vehicles. The contract says 90 city cameras, but the community map shows 299 in the OKC metro. Private businesses, parking lots, and HOAs feed data into the same Flock network. In Dunwoody, GA, Flock employees were caught accessing cameras inside a gym, including the pool, fitness studio, and a children's gymnastics room. And the 90 is a floor, not a cap: through Fusus, the Axon-owned real-time crime center OKCPD taps, the department already pulls in private and community cameras beyond its Flock poles. Removing the Flock poles alone would not close that pipe, which is why we also refuse any replacement vendor, Axon included.

⚠️

Already Being Abused

It has already happened here. From December 2024 to April 2025, an OKCPD sergeant used police databases for personal use, surfaced by a resident's complaint and not by an audit, and drew a 3-day unpaid suspension and a year of probation. On August 18, Chief Bacy admitted the department has "had incidents with two employees." Elsewhere, officers have been charged with crimes for using Flock to stalk partners and exes. Tulsa PD logged protest-related searches. Texas deputies used it for an abortion investigation. Flock's own VP of Business Development searched a city's database 63 times without being a police officer. In San Francisco, outside agencies searched local data 1.6 million times without authorization. And when researchers reported all of this, Flock's CEO sent an email to police departments calling them "activists who want to defund the police."

📝

The Contract Is Rigged

Flock can activate new surveillance features - audio detection, video, AI capabilities - on existing cameras without council approval or public notice. In February 2026, they quietly rewrote their contract terms: deleting data ownership protections and adding a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide" data license that survives termination. They block web archiving so cities can't track changes. The August 2026 renewal changed only one enforceable term, a ban on sharing OKC's data with federal agencies. The retention cut, the keyword blocks, and the "regular audits" the city advertised are Flock settings and department policy, revocable without a vote. See what the amendment actually changed.

📋

No Proof It Works

No effectiveness report has ever been published for OKC's system. A peer-reviewed evaluation of a major ALPR expansion in Atlantic City found no statistically significant reduction in violent crime. In San Jose, only 0.25% of 360 million captured images matched any law enforcement hotlist. The rest was just data on ordinary people going about their lives. Chief Bacy has credited Flock with roughly 1,280 stolen vehicles recovered, 210 missing persons found, and 60 murder cases aided, but the department confirmed in writing (OCPD-10088) that it keeps no records linking any Flock search to a case outcome. It cites results its own files cannot show.

$8.4B
Follow the money

OKC pays Flock $270,000 a year. Flock is valued at $8.4 billion. Camera leasing fees can't explain the gap - which means cities aren't the real customers. We are.

Who is actually paying for Flock? →
The Bait-and-Switch

OKC contracted for a license plate reader.
OKC is operating a surveillance platform.

The hardware never changed. The contract did. Every capability below can run on the same 90 poles council approved in 2023, switched on by Flock or OKCPD under a Permitted Purpose broad enough to cover all of it, with no notice and no new vote. Some are live now. Some are one setting away.

2023 What council voted on

"Crime awareness, prevention, and prosecution."

- Master Agreement C241032, Permitted Purpose clause

  • Falcon fixed-position cameras
  • Read license plates, check hot lists
  • 90 cameras, one product line
  • No new features without a new vote
2026 What the contract lets them switch on

A national surveillance platform. None of these were on the 2023 ballot.

- Documented on Flock's own product pages and by independent researchers

  • Vehicle Fingerprint - search by color, damage, no plate needed
  • FreeForm AI - "vehicles near the abortion clinic" queries
  • Condor - AI cameras that follow people on foot
  • Raven - audio detection Flock can switch on remotely (contract section 2.4); off today, by Bacy's account
  • Aerodome - drone integration
  • Flock Nova - data fusion with third-party data
  • National Lookup - automatic sharing with 5,000+ agencies; Bacy turned it off but can re-enable it case-by-case
  • Philippines-based AI classification of your neighbors' vehicles
See the full breakdown →
“There is no transparency reporting or internal usage reporting in our policies, SOPs, directives, training or guidance materials.”
- OKCPD Department Memorandum, March 10, 2026, on official letterhead in response to our records requests. The department has advertised an audit since. It still won't let the public see the log (OCPD-10716). Read it yourself.

What six open records requests revealed

We filed three requests to OKCPD and three to the City of Oklahoma City. Every finding below is sourced from official responses.

01

OKCPD punted on all three requests

All three OKCPD requests came back with the same response: a link to the online Operations Manual. No Flock-specific documents, no contracts, no policies. The department that operates the system couldn't produce a single document governing its use.

Source: OCPD-2885, OCPD-2886, OCPD-2887-2026
02

The City produced the critical memo

The City's response to our re-filed request included OKCPD's own internal memorandum - the document in which the department admitted, in writing, that as of March 2026 it had no access controls, no prohibited-use policies, no audit procedures, no discipline standards, and no transparency reporting for Flock.

Source: ORR-1095-2026, Department Memorandum OCPD-2885-2026
03

The only published policy doesn't apply

Operations Manual §5-118, in the published 6th Edition (pp. 283-284), describes vehicle-mounted ALPR units operated by officers during shifts, not Flock's static, network-connected cameras. That edition also stated ALPR data would not be shared as part of a law enforcement information database. OKCPD quietly rewrote §5-118 in June 2026, softening that clause, and the paper trail behind the rewrite (OCPD-9710) came back with nothing new.

Source: OKCPD Operations Manual 6th Edition, pp. 283-284
04

The contract exceeds what Oklahoma law allows

Flock's contract authorizes use for general "crime awareness, prevention, and prosecution." Oklahoma statute 47 O.S. §7-606.1 limits ALPR use to insurance enforcement. The gap between what's authorized and what's happening has never been publicly addressed.

Source: Master Agreement C241032 vs. 47 O.S. §7-606.1
05

Training materials are being withheld

OKCPD admits training materials for Flock exist but withholds them as "law enforcement use only" - without citing any statutory exemption from the Oklahoma Open Records Act. If the training is above board, why can't the public see it?

Source: OCPD-2885-2026 Internal Memorandum, Item 2
But wait, there's more · Round 2 answers are in

Eleven more questions. The first answers are in.

Round 1 was the receipts round. Round 2 was the audit round, and the first answers are back. OCPD-9710, the paper trail behind OKCPD's June 2026 rewrite of Section 5-118, was answered and produced nothing new. OCPD-10088, on stolen-vehicle case linkage, came back "not tracked": the department keeps no records tying Flock searches to outcomes. OCPD-10080, our request for the audit logs, was denied, and when a July 22 follow-up (OCPD-10716) asked for the Admin Console audit-log export instead, the city denied that too. An audit no one can inspect is a press release, not oversight. Every status is on the Records page.

See the responses →

For the full national picture - business model, security failures, federal lawsuits, vendor conduct, and the broader coalition pushing back - read The Case →

More than 125 communities have already said no.

Marietta, Oklahoma voted Flock down on August 20, two days after Oklahoma City renewed. Its police chief walked into the meeting recommending the cameras and reversed himself after hearing the company's own representative say the data is retained indefinitely. Coweta, OK declined to renew a week earlier. Guthrie, OK terminated their contract. Lynnwood, WA voted 7-0. Tompkins County, NY voted 12-1, calling Flock "untrustworthy." Oshkosh rescinded within 24 hours over Flock's lies. Cambridge, Austin, Mountain View, Staunton, Eugene, Denver, Flagstaff, Dane County - the list keeps growing. Amazon killed their Ring-Flock partnership. The Institute for Justice filed federal lawsuits in Norfolk and San Jose. If you believe in small government, this is small government - a private corporation operating a mass surveillance system the government couldn't build directly. Add your name to the petition.

As of August 27, 2026, the Institute for Justice's cancellation database documents 128 local governments, and it counts strictly: jurisdictions that only paused operations or switched to a different vendor are excluded. Who Approved This separately documents 97 Flock contract endings, each tied to a public record. These numbers move weekly.

Tell City Council: 01 Do not renew the Flock contract. 02 Remove Flock cameras. 03 Do not use another ALPR vendor.
RENEWED AUGUST 18, 2026 · THE CASE STANDS

The vote is in. The case isn't.
Read it. Share it. Sign it.

On May 27, 100+ OKC residents filled Mayflower Congregational Church. Three council members - Cooper (Ward 2), Hamon (Ward 6), and Pennington (Ward 7) - showed up with us. Five did not. Then 8 of 10 public commenters spoke against Flock on June 16, and five more residents did the same on July 7 - both times with Flock off the agenda. On August 18, 2026, the Council renewed the contract 5-3 anyway; Cooper, Hamon, and Pennington voted no, and Stonecipher (Ward 8) was absent. The renewal runs one year, so it comes back around. The case here is the argument against it, and the record keeps growing between now and then. Read it, share it, and add your name to the petition.

"It does not change my mind. I think it should end."
- Councilman Camal Pennington (Ward 7), after voting no on August 18
Sign the Petition Show Up Every Meeting

Recent coverage: KOSU · Free Press OKC · KOCO 5 · The Gayly · See town hall recap →

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