The Flock Debate in Livonia and Troy

Livonia's Public Safety Committee takes up the city's Flock Safety license-plate cameras again on Thursday, Nov. 19. In Troy, residents have spoken against the cameras at council meetings, and they surfaced in the school board race. Public records from both cities show how the system works, who can search it, how often it is searched and what police credit it with.

How Flock works

Flock Safety sells police departments solar-powered cameras that photograph passing vehicles and read their plates. Troy's order form describes the fixed camera as "infrastructure-free (solar power + LTE)" with "Vehicle Fingerprint" software, which lets officers search footage by vehicle type, make, color, plate state, missing or covered plates, and features "like bumper stickers, decals, and roof racks." A portable "Flex" version can be moved.

The system works in three main ways, according to the order form:

• Alerts. A camera alerts officers when it reads a plate on a hot list: the FBI's National Crime Information Center, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, or the department's own custom lists. Troy staff said in October that the department's custom list holds about 215 entries.
• Searches. Officers can look up where a plate has been seen, search by time and location, and, with the "Advanced Search" upgrade Troy bought, run "Convoy Analysis, Multi Geo Search, and Visual Search."
• Networks. Agencies can search other agencies' cameras. The order form describes a state network and a nationwide network offering "10 billion additional plate reads per month," and the ability to request access to cameras owned by businesses and neighborhoods.

Every search records the agency, a reason and how many networks it covered. Images are kept for a set retention period: 30 days in Troy's contract. Livonia police told a council committee Oct. 1 they had cut Livonia's from 30 days to 14.

Troy's policy, General Order #124, sets the rules for officers. Quoted in the department's audit reports, it says the system "shall only be used for official law enforcement business" and "in conjunction with patrol operations or criminal investigations; reasonable suspicion or probable cause are not required before using the ALPR." It bars using the system to harass or intimidate, for personal use, or "in a manner that has the purpose or known effect of infringing upon First Amendment rights."

Flock has changed how sharing and searches work over the past year, according to its emails to Troy police Capt. Nathan Gobler. In December 2025 it invited the department to webinars on "configurable filters designed to comply with state and local restrictions, including preventing searches related to immigration status or reproductive rights," and on "how federal agency data-sharing requests are surfaced." Later that month it said network audits would redact "user names, license plates, filters, and case numbers," and that a "Federal Opt-In capability" was coming. In February 2026 it told customers that "agencies can now decide, at the agency level, whether they receive data-sharing requests from federal partners," and that every search now requires "an Offense Type from a prefilled dropdown." The records do not show which of these settings Troy uses.

Source: Flock Safety order form for Troy Police Department, executed Aug. 26, 2025, released under Troy FOIA request 26-1024; Flock Safety emails to Troy police, Dec. 5, 8 and 19, 2025, and Feb. 10, 2026, released by Troy under FOIA; Troy Police Department ALPR audits, released under request 26-1136, Oct. 23, 2026; Troy staff correspondence, Oct. 15, 2026; Livonia Thrive coverage of the Oct. 1 Public Safety committee meeting

What each city has

Troy has run Flock cameras under contracts since 2023. Council approved a two-year, $140,050 contract by resolution on March 13, 2023. On Aug. 18, 2025, it approved a bid waiver for a five-year contract, which Police Chief Joshua Jones signed Aug. 26, 2025: 25 fixed cameras and two portable units, $69,500 a year, Aug. 29, 2025, through Aug. 28, 2030. The contract renews for another five years unless either side gives notice at least 30 days before it ends. A police list of camera locations puts six fixed cameras on Big Beaver Road and five on Rochester Road, with others on Crooks, John R, Stephenson Highway, Coolidge Highway, Dequindre, Maple and 14 Mile. Troy's public Flock page, hosted by Flock, reported 5,445 hot-list hits when it was last updated Nov. 21, 2025.

1. Crooks Road south of South Boulevard, southbound
2. Rochester Road south of South Boulevard, southbound
3. Dequindre Road south of South Boulevard, southbound
4. Crooks Road at I-75: northbound north of the freeway, southbound south of it (2 cameras)
5. Rochester Road south of Wattles Road, northbound
6. Big Beaver Road: two westbound east of Wilshire Drive, two eastbound east of Troy Center Drive (4 cameras)
7. Big Beaver Road east of Livernois Road, eastbound
8. Rochester Road: two northbound south of Big Beaver, one southbound north of Century Drive (3 cameras)
9. Big Beaver Road west of Dequindre, westbound
10. Maple Road west of Doyle Drive, eastbound
11. Maple Road west of Dequindre, westbound
12. Coolidge Highway south of Industrial Row, one each direction (2 cameras)
13. Stephenson Highway south of Rankin, southbound
14. Stephenson Highway north of 14 Mile, northbound
15. John R Road north of 14 Mile, one each direction (2 cameras)
16. 14 Mile Road east of I-75, westbound (2 cameras)

Livonia's council approved its Flock system in the fall of 2025, Councilmember Carrie Budzinski said in August, "without a public community discussion." Resident Steve King told council Oct. 12 that police sought a bid waiver for Flock on Sept. 22, 2025, and that a $295,000 purchase passed on the Oct. 6, 2025, consent agenda.

Source: Flock order form for Troy Police Department; Troy City Council agenda item, Aug. 18, 2025; Troy Resolution 2023-03-040; Troy Police Department camera location list, released under FOIA; Flock transparency page for Troy Police Department; Livonia Thrive coverage of the Livonia City Council, Aug. 17 and Oct. 12, 2026

What the records show

Livonia: a million searches, almost all nationwide

Livonia released its Flock audit logs for July and August under the Freedom of Information Act to a resident, who shared them with Troy Thrive. The network log lists every search by any agency that reached Livonia's cameras; the organization log lists Livonia officers' own searches. Plate numbers, user names and case numbers are redacted. Troy Thrive's count of the files:

• 1,005,034 searches reached Livonia's cameras in the two months, by 3,290 agencies. All but 3,927 were run by agencies other than Livonia's police.
• Nearly all were nationwide lookups. Of the 1,001,107 outside searches, 970,052 covered 1,000 or more agencies' networks at once; the median covered 6,124. Only 133 covered ten networks or fewer. Most outside searches were not aimed at Livonia; Livonia's cameras were among thousands searched at once.
• The largest outside searchers were Louisville Metro Police (31,348), the Texas Department of Public Safety (24,696), Michigan State Police (24,505), the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Office (20,703) and Houston police (16,233).
• 399 searches listed immigration as the reason, by 48 agencies: 267 under "Immigration (criminal)" and 132 under "Immigration (civil/administrative)," some noting "I.C.E." or "287g." Two Michigan departments, Auburn Hills and Novi police, ran three civil/administrative immigration searches each. None of the 399 targeted ten or fewer networks.
• Livonia's own officers ran 4,073 searches in the two months, led by larceny (959), burglary (877) and vehicle theft (459). The median Livonia search covered 1,162 networks. None listed immigration.

The Texas DPS ran 15,374 of its searches in July, the figure Councilmember Brandon McCullough read at the Oct. 12 council meeting from data a resident family had sent council.

Source: City of Livonia Flock network and organization audit logs, July 1-Aug. 31, 2026, released to a resident under FOIA; Troy Thrive analysis. Counts are of log rows; times are UTC

Troy: who can search Troy's cameras

Flock sends Troy police a monthly "Sharing Snapshot" of the organizations Troy shares its camera data with. The reports released by Troy show a drop of more than 1,600 organizations between April 30 and June 30, almost all of them outside Michigan:

No May report was among the records released. Flock revised the September report on Oct. 9, saying "an error in processing caused incorrect data to be sent." Every report lists both "Statewide Network: Michigan" and "Nationwide Network" as "Enabled." The reports do not say whether that setting lets Troy search other agencies' cameras, lets others search Troy's, or both, or what changed between April and June.

Chief Jones described the sharing in July text messages with a resident who organizes against Flock, released by Troy under FOIA. As of June 1, Jones wrote on July 29, Troy was sharing with "187 in-state agencies," "1 out of state agency" and "0 Federal Agencies," adding that this "is a far cry from 'every police department in the nation' having access to the data captured by our cameras." Jones wrote that Troy's Flock administrator "is an in house position done by a member of my command staff."

Jones also laid out Troy's sharing criteria. Michigan agencies are allowed, but "if there are specific incidents of misuse, we can cancel any sharing relationship." Out of state, Jones listed "articulable locations along the I-75 corridor," the Chicago area and the Toledo and Cleveland area "due to the amount of transient crime that occurs between Troy" and those cities, "specific drug interdiction units allowed to assist with DEA/NET investigations," and locations tied to narcotics transport, auto theft, sex trafficking and fraud investigations. "When granting access to Troy cameras, only 'search' permissions are allowed," Jones wrote.

The snapshots give counts only. They do not name the organizations; each links to a "View All Shared Networks" page in Flock's system, which was not part of the release.

The snapshots also cover only one direction: who can search Troy's cameras. Livonia's audit logs show the other direction, Troy officers' searches of other cities' cameras. Troy police ran 839 searches that reached Livonia's cameras in July and August. Of those, 527 covered between 236 and 292 networks; the other 312 covered between 5,894 and 6,239, the scale of the nationwide lookups described above. The reasons Troy officers entered were led by stolen property (203), larceny (175), arrest warrants (161) and hit-and-run crashes (79). None listed immigration.

Source: Flock Safety Sharing Snapshot emails to Troy Police Department, April 1-Oct. 9, 2026; text messages between Chief Joshua Jones and a resident, July 28-Sept. 17, 2026; both released by Troy under FOIA. City of Livonia Flock network audit logs, July 1-Aug. 31, 2026, released to a resident under FOIA; Troy Thrive analysis

Troy: what the department's audits found

Troy police audit Flock use under General Order #124, using Flock's audit tool, which flags patterns such as repeated searches of one plate, searches beyond 30 days and searches only of other agencies' cameras. Three audits released Oct. 23 found every reviewed search valid:

• 2025 review (completed April 27, 2026): ten employees drawn at random from everyone with Flock search access; all of their 2025 searches complied.
• First quarter 2026 (May 19): 16 flagged searches, all valid. Two "lacked detail regarding the purpose of the search or the incident number"; after checking patrol logs and camera footage, the reviewer found both legitimate and sent the two employees reminders.
• Second quarter 2026 (July 6): the report's summary says second quarter; its purpose paragraph says "first quarter of 2026." It says "I reviewed sixteen (44) primary activity searches," then "All forty-four searches were found to be valid."

Chief Jones signed off on each: "I am pleased that our Officers are following policy and intended use." The audits cover Troy officers' searches. They do not cover searches outside agencies make of Troy's cameras.

Source: Troy Police Department General Staff Inspections EVT-00000678-1, EVT-00000689-1 and EVT-00000701-1, released under request 26-1136, Oct. 23, 2026

Getting the records

Troy released its Flock contract free on Oct. 5 and its audits on Oct. 23. It denied a request for General Order #124 itself on Oct. 6, citing a law-enforcement exemption in state law, though its audits quote the order. A broader request for Troy's Flock policy, contracts, audit logs and sharing records drew an estimate of $53,491.30 and 90 business days, almost all of it for redaction.

Source: Troy Police Department records portal, requests 26-1024, 26-1027, 26-1136 and 26-950, Oct. 1-23, 2026

Successes police credit to Flock

• Troy: The department's second-quarter audit lists four cases. After shots were fired outside a business on Big Beaver Road, detectives used Flock to find and identify two vehicles; "without the Flock cameras, these suspects would not have been identified." In a scam that cost a 78-year-old resident more than $5,000, a detective used a doorbell-camera image and Flock to identify two suspects. Flock located a vehicle in catalytic converter thefts that cost a Troy business more than $11,000. And a carjacked vehicle was found after it "hit on a Flock camera in Dearborn," where Dearborn police arrested a suspect. Source: Troy audit EVT-00000701-1.
• Troy: Police said Flock readers identified a vehicle tied to package thefts at the Somerset Park Apartments; two people were arraigned Oct. 1 on mail-theft charges. Source: The Oakland Press, Oct. 2, 2026.
• Livonia: Investigators tracked the vehicle of an Illinois man arrested Oct. 12 at Beverly Park, accused of arranging to meet a teen for sex, in part with Flock cameras. Source: FOX 2, Oct. 14, 2026. Livonia police also described cases the cameras helped solve at the Oct. 1 committee meeting (Livonia Thrive).
• Ferndale: Flock data was used to find a suspect in the March 2025 shooting death of a DoorDash driver on Woodward, police said. Sources: C&G Newspapers, Oct. 14, 2025; FOX 2, Nov. 14, 2025.
• Sterling Heights: Police credited Flock with a suspect's arrest less than three hours after an 18-year-old was shot on Hall Road. Source: FOX 2, Aug. 14, 2026.
• Southfield: Flock alerts tracked a car carjacked at gunpoint on Telegraph in September 2024 to Columbus, Ohio; a suspect was charged in 2026. Source: FOX 2, Sept. 4, 2026.
• Shelby Township: A Flock alert located a Florida robbery suspect's truck near 23 Mile and Van Dyke. "This case is a clear example of how teamwork and the use of the FLOCK system were able to keep our community safe," Police Chief Robert J. Shelide said. Source: CBS Detroit, Dec. 1, 2025.
• Monroe County: Deputies used store video and Flock readers to identify a rideshare vehicle and find a 14-year-old runaway. Source: CBS Detroit, Jan. 12, 2026.
• Department totals: Eastpointe's chief credited Flock with 39 crimes solved in 2024, 54 in 2025 and 46 in 2026 through mid-September (ClickOnDetroit, Sept. 16, 2026). St. Clair Shores' chief cited more than 40 arrests (ClickOnDetroit, Sept. 23, 2026). Livingston County's sheriff cited "a couple of homicides, a number of armed robberies" and about 250 stolen cars recovered (WILX, Sept. 3, 2026). These are the departments' own figures.

Problems

• Misuse: Eastpointe police found two employees misused the system, one for personal purposes (ClickOnDetroit, Sept. 16, 2026). The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is investigating a former deputy for alleged Flock misuse after leaving county employment and is weighing criminal charges (CBS Detroit, Oct. 2, 2026; ClickOnDetroit, Oct. 6, 2026).
• Immigration searches: FOX 2 reported Oct. 7 that Troy police were among five Metro Detroit agencies named in a Detroit News analysis of USA Today data on Flock searches tied to immigration, with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and police in Brownstown, Southfield and Taylor. "In Troy, they had a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation going on where ICE got involved," the station reported. It included no statement from Troy police and no count of Troy searches (FOX 2, Oct. 7, 2026). Livonia's logs show 399 immigration-reason searches by outside agencies in two months.
• Sharing without knowing: Ferndale police said a national lookup setting had been turned on without the department's knowledge (C&G Newspapers, Nov. 20, 2025). St. Clair Shores' chief confirmed the FBI had been accessing the city's camera data (WXYZ).
• Vague reasons: A Kalamazoo audit showed a Michigan State Police search logged as "USBP immigration investigation"; MSP said it was a Border Patrol drug case and the analyst "did a poor job annotating" (WOOD TV8). In Troy, two searches in early 2026 lacked a stated purpose or incident number (Troy audit EVT-00000689-1).
• Errors: Monroe County's attorney told commissioners "the Flock system is riffed with errors" before they voted 8-1 to end the sheriff's program (WXYZ). Troy Thrive found no documented Michigan case of a wrongful stop from a Flock misread. Livonia speakers on Oct. 12 cited misreads and wrongful stops in other states.
• The data terms: Troy's contract incorporates Flock's Terms of Service only by a link to Flock's website, with no version or date. The terms Flock posted Aug. 21, 2026, grant Flock a "perpetual" license to use customer data "to support and improve Flock's products and services," under Georgia law with arbitration; the July 22, 2025, version in force when Troy signed gave a license "to provide the Flock Services to Customer," under the customer's state law. Both say Flock will not sell customer data. Troy's file does not show which version governs.

Source: as linked; Flock Safety Terms of Service, Aug. 21, 2026, and July 22, 2025 (Rollingwood, Texas, council packet; Siskiyou County, Calif., executed agreement)

The debate in Livonia

Council referred Flock to its Public Safety, Health and Environment Committee 7-0 on Monday, Aug. 17, after Budzinski said the system had been approved without community discussion. Earlier that night a resident read the contract's license-grant clause and argued the city had agreed to broad reuse of Livonia's data.

The committee met Thursday, Oct. 1, for more than two hours with 39 people signed in and police, the police officers' union president and Flock representative Mike Ducharme present. Residents raised data storage, federal access, the Fourth Amendment, misreads and how many Livonia convictions Flock had produced. Police described cases the cameras helped solve and the cut to 14-day retention.

On Monday, Oct. 12, a motion by McCullough to move the issue to the Committee of the Whole failed 1-5. All 17 speakers on Flock in closing public comment opposed the cameras, citing the audit logs, the Fourth Amendment and misuse elsewhere. Committee chair Patrick Brockway said more than a dozen questions awaited answers. At the Oct. 26 study meeting, a resident asked whether council could cancel the contract or defund it; no one answered at the meeting. At the regular meeting that night, Brockway said the committee meets on Flock Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. at City Hall, with about a dozen questions still with the police and law departments, and that it can keep the item or send it to council for action.

Source: Livonia Thrive coverage of the Livonia City Council, Aug. 17, Oct. 12 and Oct. 26, 2026, and of the Oct. 1 committee meeting

The debate in Troy

No Flock item was on the Troy council's Oct. 5 agenda; residents have raised the cameras in public comment. Beau Taylor, a school board candidate, spoke "in opposition to Flock cameras" on Sept. 14, according to the official minutes, calling Flock "a solution looking for a problem." Jason Schwab spoke against the cameras on Oct. 5 for at least the second straight meeting, citing an Oct. 1 federal court ruling in Oklahoma that suppressed evidence from Flock-based searches.

The cameras also reached the Troy School Board race. Unsigned texts on Oct. 12 and 13 linked candidates Walt Cook, Vital Anne and Taylor to support for Flock; Cook and Taylor had both publicly opposed the cameras. Flock told WXYZ it was "in no way affiliated with these text messages," and an Oakland County Republican Party official denied sending them. No one has claimed them.

On Oct. 26, Councilmember Rebecca Chamberlain reported that, at Chamberlain's request, the Michigan Municipal League held an informal session on Flock at its convention, where Sterling Heights offered policy ideas on safeguards for residents.

Flock's newsletters to Troy police ask departments to carry its message to elected officials. The February 2026 issue told chiefs and command staff to email Flock's External Affairs team "for support on upcoming votes, media, and transparency planning," offered a Flock representative "to engage with your elected leaders ahead of a vote," and asked readers to "forward this email to your city council." The March issue asked them to share it with "your city council members, and your community."

Source: Flock Safety newsletters to Troy police, Feb. 10 and March 10, 2026, released by Troy under FOIA; Troy Thrive, "National Rhetoric or Local Stakes? Inside the Troy School Board Race," Oct. 29, 2026; Troy Thrive coverage of the Troy City Council, Oct. 5 and Oct. 26, 2026

What other cities decided

Since November 2025, nine Metro Detroit-area governments have ended or declined Flock contracts, three more have covered or disconnected their cameras, and at least two have renewed.

Several chiefs whose cities dropped Flock said they still support plate readers. Ferndale Police Chief Dennis M. Emmi remains "an ardent supporter of ALPR technology," C&G Newspapers reported, and Milford Police Chief Scott Tarasiewicz may bring another vendor's contract to council, The Detroit News reported.

Source: as linked in the table; C&G Newspapers, Nov. 20, 2025; The Detroit News via GovTech, Oct. 6, 2026

What the state might do

Michigan has no state law on plate readers. House Bill 5493, introduced Jan. 29 by Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. with HB 5492, says plate data "must not be retained for more than 14 days" except as evidence, under a warrant or preservation request, or in an ongoing investigation, and limits use to listed purposes. It has not moved out of the House Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 1131, introduced July 29 by Sen. Jim Runestad, would also set 14-day retention and require warrants, with exceptions, according to Michigan Public.

Source: Michigan Legislature; Michigan Public, Aug. 4, 2026

Should Livonia and Troy keep their Flock cameras or end the contracts? Comments are open below.