Hopkinton Kills Flock Safety Contract, Orders Cameras Ripped Out by Sept. 30

Hopkinton has pulled the plug on its contract with Flock Safety, ordering the surveillance company to shut down its license plate reader cameras immediately and physically remove them from town roads by September 30. The town's decision came after an internal legal review determined the service agreement was illegal under Massachusetts municipal procurement law.

According to WHDH, Hopkinton formally terminated the contract on Thursday after officials say the legal review turned up statutory deficiencies that made the agreement unenforceable. As detailed by the Hopkinton Independent, the town asked Flock Safety to deactivate its cameras as soon as possible while giving the company until September 30 to physically pull the equipment out. Town Manager Elaine Lazarus emphasized that meeting procurement standards and protecting taxpayer interests required the immediate cancellation, per the same account.

At the time of the termination, Hopkinton had just two operational Flock cameras running — one on Hayden Rowe Street and another on West Main Street near Interstate 495. Those cameras had only been up for about five months, installed in early spring under interim police leadership, and two more had been planned before the contract fell apart, the paper reports.

A Broader Review of Police Surveillance Tools

Town leaders aren't just walking away from Flock Safety — they're now taking a hard look at every surveillance technology the police department uses. John Guilfoil Public Relations reports that the review will weigh operational needs against privacy safeguards, transparency, and procurement rules before the town considers adopting any future tools.

Select Board Chair Shahidul Mannan said public trust requires striking a balance between public safety and privacy protections, according to the same release. Whether Hopkinton will eventually rebid for license plate reader technology through a fully compliant procurement process remains an open question town officials have not yet answered.

Part of a Wider MetroWest Reckoning

Hopkinton's move follows a similar reversal in neighboring Framingham, which let its own Flock Safety contract lapse and switched off its cameras on June 30 after months of resident opposition, as Hoodline previously reported. The pattern extends further across Massachusetts: in Littleton, officials began canceling their contract this month after discovering Flock Safety had quietly reactivated five cameras without notifying the town, prompting Select Board Chair Gary Wilson to order all cameras removed from local roads, according to CyberNews.

In New Bedford, the police department temporarily suspended its Flock Safety cameras and placed an officer on administrative leave this month after court filings alleged the officer ran hundreds of unauthorized database queries — reportedly more than 200 vehicle searches in a single month — to stalk an ex-partner, per CBS News. As of this month, at least 80 police departments across Massachusetts still hold active Flock Safety contracts, even though the state has no legislation regulating how license plate reader data is collected or how driver privacy is protected, according to the ACLU of Massachusetts, which has urged municipalities to impose their own restrictions or drop the contracts entirely given the risk of warrant-free tracking.

Company Responds Amid a National Wave of Cancellations

Hopkinton's cancellation lands amid a much larger national reckoning. More than 50 local government jurisdictions nationwide have canceled, suspended, or rejected Flock Safety contracts since January amid mounting concerns over privacy, unauthorized tracking, and third-party data access, per reporting from TNW.

Flock Safety has moved to address some of that criticism directly. On August 13, CEO Garrett Langley announced company-wide changes including shortening the default data retention window from 30 days to seven days and requiring case numbers for every database query, aimed at curbing police misuse following reports of unauthorized searches across the country, TNW reports.

Hopkinton's police department has previously relied on Flock's automated license plate readers as part of broader Massachusetts law enforcement efforts, a tool other departments in the state have used to help crack stolen vehicle cases and hit-and-run investigations. But for now, the town's two cameras are coming down, and any future surveillance tools will have to clear a procurement and privacy review that, this time, town officials say will be done by the book.