Washington Township in Gloucester County has spent nearly $60,000 in opioid settlement money on Flock Safety license plate readers rather than addiction treatment or prevention programs, according to municipal bill lists. The township made three separate purchases totaling $59,654.99 from its dedicated National Opioid Settlement account between April 2025 and February 2026, buying 17 cameras in all. It also drew $117,946.70 from the same settlement account to purchase two Chevrolet Tahoe patrol vehicles for its police department.
The disbursements were first detailed by NJ.com, whose investigation found dozens of New Jersey towns spent a combined $2.3 million in opioid settlement funds on wishlist items rather than the prevention, treatment and outreach programs the money was intended for. The township paid $35,000 for 10 initial cameras in April 2025, then followed up in February 2026 with $7,020 for two more cameras and $17,634.99 for five additional units, according to the Woodbury Warbler’s reporting. Washington Township officials did not respond to requests for comment, per NJ.com.
Money Meant for Treatment, Spent on Surveillance
New Jersey is receiving more than $1.1 billion through 2038 as part of a national settlement against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, CVS and other opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, according to NJ.com. Half of that windfall goes directly to 262 local governments, including all 21 counties and every municipality with a population over 10,000, per the NJ Office of the State Comptroller. That direct-disbursement structure leaves individual towns to select their own spending projects with little pre-approval oversight, relying instead on after-the-fact public records audits. The State's 2025 Annual Opioid Abatement Report said the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund had received $200.9 million in abatement funds as of October 1, 2025, according to New Jersey Legislature discussion points.
Under New Jersey’s 2023 opioid law, settlement funds are required to supplement rather than supplant existing government spending, and a 2022 state attorney general memorandum specified that the money should support prevention, treatment and outreach rather than law enforcement. The comptroller’s office has separately warned municipalities that settlement funds cannot be used to cover pre-existing municipal costs or general police operations, and must fit strictly defined opioid remediation categories such as treatment and overdose prevention. Washington Township is far from alone: the Woodbury Warbler’s reporting found Glassboro and Mantua spent a combined $243,543.92 in settlement funds to offset police salaries, while Cranford Township bought pharmacy-adjacent license plate readers and Alcotest breathalyzers. NJ.com also reported that New Jersey towns spent opioid settlement funds on muscle cars, frosted glass windows and concerts between 2022 and 2025.
Advocates Call the Camera Purchases Shameful
Sandy Gibson said Flock cameras will not prevent overdoses or stop people from becoming addicted, calling the spending choice shameful, according to NJ.com. Rafael E. Pérez-Figueroa said Flock cameras are a law enforcement and surveillance tool, not an evidence-based public health intervention for opioid use or overdose prevention. He added that increased surveillance and policing could push people who use drugs into more isolated settings, and said investments should instead prioritize overdose prevention, harm reduction, treatment access and support, and improved health, per NJ.com’s reporting. Finn McGinn first reported Washington Township’s use of opioid settlement funds for license plate readers on social media.
New Jersey law enforcement agencies rely heavily on automated license plate readers, which help recover stolen cars, find missing people and investigate violent crime, according to NJ.com. Flock Safety, one of the country’s fastest-growing makers of the devices, operates more than 120,000 readers across at least 6,000 U.S. cities and captures over 20 billion vehicle scans monthly, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The company announced in August that it was shortening its standard default retention setting from 30 days to seven days amid growing national privacy pushback, though individual agencies can still elect longer retention periods depending on state rules.
How Long the Scans Stick Around
New Jersey keeps automated license plate reader scan records for three years, under Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2022-12, which also requires logging the time and place of every scan and every database query. Some other states store the data for as little as 30 days, or in some cases only five minutes. Washington Township renewed or extended its contracts with Flock Safety in April 2025, the same month it made its first camera purchase from the settlement account.
New Jersey Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2022-12 establishes specific training requirements for agency users authorized to operate automated license plate readers or access ALPR data, according to the Attorney General's office. The New Jersey Attorney General and State Police have also released a 2024 audit of automated license plate-recognition data collected and used by law-enforcement agencies.
The state’s Opioid Recovery and Remediation Advisory Council released its inaugural strategic plan in June 2025, directing statewide settlement dollars toward housing expansion, harm reduction, treatment access and wraparound recovery services through 2030. Opioid settlement funds were designed for prevention efforts and treatments such as buprenorphine, established under the 2021 legal settlement agreement that created the funds in the first place. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin publicly criticized a separate 2025 legislative budget proposal that sought to divert $45 million in opioid settlement funds to hospital systems for unidentified uses rather than dedicated remediation programs, underscoring that fights over how to spend the money have played out at both the state and municipal level.
Nearby, Paterson used its own settlement funds to create a three-year homelessness chief position focused on shelter outreach, a contrast to how Washington Township directed its share of the money. Critics like Pérez-Figueroa argue that enforcement-oriented approaches can further criminalize people who use drugs, while Flock cameras remain capable of monitoring the very population the settlement funds were meant to help.
