In a quick turn events, the Town of Taos Council this evening voted to discontinue funding its annual Flock Safety contract, as part of its approval of the Fiscal 2026-2027 budget. It was a 4-0 vote (Mayor Barrone did not participate as there was no tie to break).
This is huge and is a testament to the work of many people behind the scenes that made this happen in less than a month since news broke July 8. That includes everyone who spoke up at tonight's town council meeting, those who contacted their council members individually, those who spread the word, the town clerk's office dedication to the public records processes, and the council members who initiated action. Congrats to all!
But the work continues, both in the short- and long-term:
The cameras need to actually come down. In at least one city, a city ended its Flock contract and the cameras were left up, prompting the mayor to personally cover them with trash bags. Only then were they removed. Mayor Barrone should not have to do this!
We must ensure that Flock is not replaced with another company's automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). For example, Denver DeFlocked, only to replace them with ALPRs from Axon. As security researcher Benn Jordan noted this weekend, "If a city is addressing privacy concerns by replacing a Flock contract with Axon, it is a very slight improvement, but it's more so just a way that they can make themselves appear to be listening to you without actually addressing the problem presented to them. In my opinion, this is not even a compromise."
The good news is that council member Darien Fernandez appears to be working toward addressing this by wanting to create a town policy. It will be important to follow this as it develops.
Additionally, it will be important that decisions on surveillance (and probably a lot more), even if they fall under the procurement threshold of $60,000, are thoroughly vetted in open, public discussion. If you remember, Flock came as a surprise to everyone.
Taos County voted for 20 ALPRs last year. While that appears to be on hold for now, those developments must be tracked.
Lastly, the DeFlock movement is an opportunity to increase everyone's constitutional, technological, and privacy literacy, as well as understanding how to efficiently navigate our local government processes. I hope to begin something the week of August 16, which is the National Week of Action Against ALPRs.
Questions? Reach out to me, Zach Behrens, at [email protected].