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Arapahoe County leaders vote to extend Flock contract, add 17 license plate cameras

By July 1, 2025 | updated 5 months ago

License Plate Readers (copy)
FILE PHOTO: Castle Rock Police Department Officer Adrian Mendez talks with an officer in the field about a suspect vehicle that may be coming into town as he keeps an eye on an array of computer monitors flagging suspected stolen vehicles via the Flock Safety license plate recognition cameras mounted around the city on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in the Strategic Response Center at the department’s headquarters in Castle Rock, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette

The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office will sign a contract extension for Flock cameras across the county that will also add 17 new cameras starting next year, commissioners voted Tuesday.

Arapahoe County Commissioners approved extending its contract with Flock Group, Inc., which operates automated license plate recognition cameras throughout the county. The estimated price tag for 2026 will be $127,000 per year.

The decision passed with a lone “no” vote from Commissioner Jessica Campbell, who expressed concerns about uncertain funding for the cameras.

Currently, there are 25 Flock cameras across Arapahoe County, Sheriff’s Office Capt. Travis Stewart said Tuesday. The vote to extend the contract for another year also included expanding Flock’s reach in the county, adding more cameras.

Arapahoe County Flock camera locations

Green dots show the locations of Arapahoe County Flock cameras as of July 1, 2025.






Sheriff’s office officials have received requests from schools, namely Arapahoe and Eagle Crest High Schools, for Flock cameras on school campuses, Sheriff’s Capt. Adam Burson told commissioners. 

They also hope to add a camera to the county jail and other “service gap” areas.

Arapahoe County proposed Flock Cameras

Red dots show the locations of future proposed Flock cameras in Arapahoe County, which are not yet finalized as of July 1, 2025. 






Over the past year-and-a-half, the camera system has “proven very valuable in locating stolen vehicles, wanted subjects and even endangered persons,” according to commission documents for the contract extension.

The initial cost for the 17 additional cameras and their installation comes to $62,500, according to commission documents. Annually, the upkeep of cameras would cost up to $52,000 after that. Combined with the cost of existing cameras, the county looks at an annual cost of $127,000 for all of the Flock cameras, according to documents. 

The cost for the cameras is one of several long-term technical tools the sheriff’s office included in their requests for funding from ballot measure 1A passed by voters in November, officials said Tuesday.

Pending decisions on the use of 1A funds, sheriff’s office officials are also considering using forfeiture funds, which currently fund the cameras, but are inconsistent. 

Commissioner Campbell, who cast the lone ‘no’ vote, thinks the jurisdictions requesting the cameras, such as the City of Centennial and the school districts, should help pay for them, she said.

Before agreeing to take on $127,000 a year, county officials should be sure of where the funding is coming from, Campbell said. 

“In terms of the county signing a contract saying that we’re going to basically take on $127,000 a year and then we’ll figure out what the cost sharing agreement is between our partners is not the way I think we should be making this decision,” she said. 

Aside from funding concerns, Campbell also has philosophical concerns in general about the use of cameras like Flock to track people, she added.

“I philosophically have very huge issues with the privacy and use of these cameras,” she said Tuesday. “It feels very much like an encroachment on our privacy … I do not like the tracking of our people like that.”

Capt. Burson said the cameras are only used in criminal situations, such as car theft cases and kidnappings. Only law enforcement has access to the data, he added, and it cannot be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Kyla Pearce

Reporter

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