The Flagstaff City Council has decided that Big Brother's time is up—at least when it comes to its deal with Flock Safety and the company's technology for recording license plates. In a decisive move from the council back in December 2025, the contract was axed, and with it, the once-active cameras went dark, no longer collecting the comings and goings of Flagstaff's citizens.
According to a recent update posted on the Flagstaff official website, these now-redundant devices are not just being shut down, but shown the door, a step towards turning the page on a controversial chapter of the city's surveillance story, even though the deactivation of the cameras was immediate, it seems the physical removal takes a little more doing—but progress is on schedule. “City staff are working closely with Flock Safety to ensure the deactivated cameras are physically removed as quickly as possible,” as stated on Flagstaff's website.
As of January 28, Flock Safety has secured the necessary permits to take the cameras down for good, promising that the patchwork of electronic eyes that have become part of the Flagstaff cityscape will be completely removed by February 5. This schedule was confirmed by Flock Safety, which told city staff about the obtained right-of-way permit, setting the stage for a less-watched Flagstaff.
Flagstaff locals who have voiced their privacy concerns can now look forward to the promised update once the cameras are fully removed—an assurance of tangible change rather than just talk, and we'll keep our eyes peeled, watching for the final confirmation that the lens of Flock Safety's cameras are indeed gone from Flagstaff streets as promised, offering a small, yet significant reclaiming of privacy for a community under the watchful gaze of too many a technological sentinel.
