Just hours before a community town hall meeting set to call for the city to suspend the use of its Flock Safety license plate reading cameras, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced on Wednesday that the city will be extending its contract with the Atlanta-based technology company.

Effective Oct. 22, access to Denver’s Flock LPR data has been shut off to all other agencies and, going forward, will only be accessible to law enforcement agencies that sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the City and County of Denver, a statement from Johnston’s office said. 

The no-cost, five-month contract is framed as an opportunity to “evaluate unprecedented and strict new measures that ensure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that license plate readers (LPRs) are used transparently and within local and state law,” the statement said. 

City officials said that any violations of the restrictions by Flock Safety will carry severe monetary penalties – $100,000 in damages for any breach or improper release of city – and could result in the contract’s dissolution.   

Additionally, Flock will agree to only allow search terms for a select number of crimes, and no federal agents will be allowed to search Denver’s data even if they are assigned to a Denver task force. 

In compliance with city and state law, there will be no searches permitted that relate to immigration or reproductive healthcare.  

“I’ve been asking for strong guardrails around use of this technology, and this new structure provides them,” said Councilman Kevin Flynn, who is serving on the task force put together to create policies for Flock’s use. “The system has already proved its worth in solving crimes around the city. We can boost safety while ensuring the data is restricted.”

However, privacy advocates, including the ACLU and some members of the Denver City Council, have pushed back on the city’s use of the technology, citing overreach and misuse of the imagery and data captured.

The recent contract extension caught some council members by surprise.

“I was stunned to learn late yesterday that after convening a task force of local and national experts, Mayor Johnston has been negotiating secretly with the discredited CEO of Flock Safety and signing another unilateral extension of this mass surveillance contract with no public process and no vote from the City Council or input from his own task force,” Councilmember Sarah Parady told The Denver Gazette.

Parady added: “What the mayor and Flock are calling their ‘Denver plan’ is in fact, just a version of Flock’s product that has always been available and, in fact, was exactly what we originally signed up for – a version where we do not participate in massive data networks with other jurisdictions.”

Johnston calls the move a way to ensure technology is “wielded responsibly” and that the city’s data stays out of the federal government’s hands.

“I’ve made clear to Flock’s leadership that I expect total transparency and that anything less will result in an end to our relationship,” Johnston said. “To their credit, they have agreed to our terms and will build a Denver-specific package that will lead the way in using this technology for the public good.” 

Agencies must negotiate an agreement with Denver, with the understanding that any data sharing with the federal government regarding civil immigration enforcement will result in an immediate loss of access and referral to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. 

“The mayor always had the ability to remove the FBI officers DPD invited into our system and to restrict data sharing outside the city,” Parody said. “His delay in doing so is inexcusable, and Flock’s mass surveillance system remains incredibly dangerous for Denver regardless of this belated step.”

Shortly before the Denver City Council rejected a two-year contract extension with Flock, the DPD quietly opted out of the national lookup feature tied to more than 100 solar-powered, license plate-reading cameras across the city.

A spokesperson from the department’s media relations team confirmed that DPD disabled the feature on April 8, 2025, and has been limiting outgoing and incoming searches to “statewide look-up.” 

Prior to the City Council vote, the contract with Flock was met with weeks of public outcry over concerns surrounding information sharing and possible use of data from the ALPRs for mass surveillance and to target illegal immigrants.

Staffing shortages among law enforcement agencies are a top concern for many municipalities, and recruitment and retention numbers are also suffering, according to a 2023 study by the Police Executive Research Forum, an independent police policy research organization.  

Many agencies are turning to technology to help fill critical gaps and clear cases, often referring to the system as a “force multiplier,” a military term that describes a resource that enhances a unit’s combat power beyond its raw troop numbers and capacities. 

“It is not an exaggeration to say that individuals suspected of the worst crimes could still be on the streets if not for this technology,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said in a statement. “Denver police have always used license plate readers responsibly and we will continue to do so under these new safeguards.” 

The no-cost contract extends camera usage in Denver through March 31, 2026, at which point the Johnston administration will, if all conditions have been met satisfactorily, present a contract to the City Council for approval of a long-term agreement.