During a city council meeting in Oshkosh, Bour officials considered a contract with Flock Safety, a leading automatic license plate reader (ALPR) provider. A council member asked if the system could create heat maps of vehicle movements; Flock’s chief information security officer assured them it could not. The council approved the contract, only for the next day to learn that Flock had lied. Deputy Mayor Joe Stephenson and Mayor Matt Mugerauer confronted the company, demanding truth. The council immediately revoked the approval, setting a record for the shortest time पहचान—one day—between approval and cancellation. Flock later admitted its system does produce heat maps, but dismissed the issue as a “small misconception.”

This incident reflects a broader pattern. In Colorado, Police Chief Tim Doran was misled about federal data sharing, only to later admit contracts with CBP and DHS. Flock has also denied data sharing with ICE, despite indirect access through local law‑enforcement partners. The company’s new “Proactive Search Term Tool” was touted as preventing improper uses, but audits show police frequently entered vague terms like “investigation” or “hehehe” to bypass safeguards—111 searches for “investigation” and 20 for “hehehe” in one Oregon department alone. Such actions underscore Flock’s tendency to misrepresent its privacy and compliance claims, warning governments to scrutinize its statements.