The number of Flock Security cameras is increasing. So is the concern in Nebraska communities

At least two Nebraska cities are reevaluating their use of automated license plate readers. City leaders in Ord and Chadron are expressing concerns about the data collected by the technology and how that data is shared with other agencies.

“We were just under the understanding they were just license plate readers,” Ord Mayor Jeramy Sedlacek told Nebraska Public Media News. “Then, the more research I did and the more I dug into them, [I] was not impressed. Didn't like them. Don't trust them.”

The automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, are an increasingly popular surveillance technology widely utilized by law enforcement across the country. These cameras, often affixed to light poles in parking lots or freestanding along well-traveled roads, record the license plate of every vehicle that passes by. Even without a license plate, the cameras capture information about a vehicle’s characteristics.

ALPR cameras from Flock Safety have been stationed in the central Nebraska city of Ord since last year. And even though Ord’s City Council unanimously voted to take them down last week, it’s unclear how long they’ll remain up, since they are operated by Valley County.

The Region 26 Emergency Management Agency and the North Central Planning, Exercise and Training Region, which serve eight counties in central Nebraska, were awarded grant funds to implement Flock cameras in interested counties within the region. Valley County sought permission from Ord to affix the Flock cameras to light poles in the city, which was granted by the City Council, Sedlacek said.

Law enforcement agencies pay a subscription to access the Flock database, and can choose to share data with other agencies. Agencies are notified when a car with a license plate on a “hot list” – a state or federal database with information on stolen cars or wanted people – passes by a camera in the area. Law enforcement can also individually search a license plate number to see where the cameras have tracked it.

Though the cameras are located in the city, the Ord Police Department did not pay the subscription fee to access the data collected by the cameras, Sedlacek said. He said that access would have cost $6,000 annually – $3,000 per camera.

“I said, ‘no way,’” Sedlacek said, citing budget constraints.

Sedlacek and Ord City Council President Jared Zulkoski said the Aug. 3 meeting at which the council agreed to remove the cameras was productive and calm. Community members largely expressed concerns about the data being held by a third-party company and potential privacy implications.

“I didn’t hear a whole lot of bad things as far as the LPRs themselves and what they can do,” Zulkoski said. “I would say 90% of the issue is the data itself, and where it goes, who controls it, who has access to it. It’s more that side of it than it is what they actually do as far as helping law enforcement.”

The vote in Ord was the first Nebraska victory for a growing movement to "de-Flock" communities by removing or prohibiting automatic license plate reader cameras. The Valley County Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss Ord’s decision to remove the cameras – and additional requests from residents to remove all cameras in Valley County – at its meeting on Tuesday.

Sedlacek said the city hopes to come to a mutual agreement with the county to get rid of the cameras.

“I would like to, if we can, rescind our agreement if we have to,” Sedlacek said. “I’m seeing if we can do it mutually – see if we can come to a compromise to get them out of city limits. That’s just where we’re at right now.”

Chadron council hears concerns

On the same day Ord voted against Flock cameras, constituents turned out to a Chadron City Council meeting to oppose the cameras during a vote on a resolution that the police chief described as a “formality” related to permitting.

Unlike in Ord, the city council in Chadron was not meeting to discuss a ban on ALPRs. Instead, the council was considering a five-year permitting agreement with the Nebraska Department of Transportation to continue using the cameras on state highways. The council voted 3-2 in favor of the agreement.

Council member Clay Andersen, who voted against the resolution, said his concern isn't with Chadron's police department, but with the agencies it shares data with.

"I have full faith in our police department, but my skepticism towards the Flock cameras falls towards those outside agencies that Rick doesn't have control over," Andersen said. “Even with Nebraska's stricter statutes towards it right now, I think it's only a matter of time before these issues become bigger than we're willing to handle,” he said.

Chadron Police Chief Rick Hickstein told the council the cameras have been in place since 2023, when he implemented a pilot program with two neighboring agencies before expanding it.

The contract with Flock, signed in February 2024, sets the cost at $7,500 annually for three cameras. Hickstein later stated that the current contract is set to expire next year.

Had the council voted against the agreement, Hickstein said the decision would not have impacted the contract with Flock.

“I would contact Flock, let them know what transpired here today and just to comply with the state would move them, basically take them out of the state right-of-way and I put them somewhere in the city of Chadron," Hickstein said. "But I'm just telling you, I still have a contract with them. I'm still paying with taxpayer money for these things. I would hate to pay for something we're not utilizing."

Hickstein said the department has used the cameras to help solve an armed bank robbery, returned an “endangered elderly person” to their family and returned stolen property to a local business owner. But during the public comment period, eight residents spoke in opposition to utilizing Flock cameras. They raised potential constitutional concerns and issues with reliability and data retention.

Keith Crofutt, a Chadron resident and former city council member, cited specific data on Flock's reliability from around the country – including a recent investigation in Roseville, California, where police found that 71% of Flock's stolen-vehicle and felony alerts over a two-year period were the result of the cameras misreading license plates.

"I do appreciate that they actually have some auditing. However, twice a year, even every month or every other month, that's a month of malfeasance that can be happening with no one observing," Crofutt said, before turning to the question of who controls the data long term.

Hickstein told Nebraska Public Media News that he wasn’t sure if the Chadron Police Department would renew its contract with the surveillance company next year, but would reevaluate its effectiveness as a public safety tool before making a decision.

ALPR use across Nebraska

According to Deflock, a crowdsourced map of ALPR cameras across the country, there are more than 400 cameras located in at least 36 counties across Nebraska.

The cameras are utilized by statewide law enforcement agencies, like the Nebraska State Patrol, and by most large local agencies. But in recent years, smaller counties and municipalities, like Valley County and Chadron, have entered into agreements with ALPR providers. Most of those agreements are with Flock Safety.

Nebraska law requires that agencies with ALPR cameras submit regular reports detailing how many “hits” they identify from each hotlist, as well as any “noncorrelated matches,” defined by the Nebraska State Patrol as “a hit that upon further investigation was found not to meet specific hotlist criteria.” The agency also must report how many license plate numbers were manually searched by law enforcement.

For example: A report from the Chardron Police Department spanning a yearlong period beginning in mid-February 2025 showed the department was alerted to 220 confirmed matches from the National Crime Information Center database, and manually entered 10 license plate numbers. The agency didn’t record any noncorrelated matches.

Some Nebraska agencies take it a step further by publishing a transparency portal through Flock Safety. These portals provide information about how many unique vehicles are detected by the cameras, how many manual searches for license plate numbers are performed and which outside agencies have access to the agency’s data.

In Sarpy County, which has 30 ALPR cameras, nearly half a million unique vehicles were detected in the 30-day period preceding Aug. 6.

Only one Nebraska agency, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office, makes public a regular search audit that details the reasons for manual searches. In July and August, those reasons included “suspect vehicle” and “illegal dumping.”

In addition to providing alerts to law enforcement, ALPRs have other uses in Nebraska – parking enforcement agencies in Omaha and Lincoln both use ALPR cameras affixed to enforcement vehicles. Last year, the Flatwater Free Press reported that multiple agencies in Nebraska utilized the Flock database for immigration-related searches.