Milford Village Council was set to vote at 7:30 p.m. Monday on whether to renew its contract for 15 Flock license plate reader cameras scattered around the village, a decision that has drawn vocal opposition from residents who say the technology threatens their privacy and safety rather than protecting it.
The vote, first reported by CBS News, centers on whether Milford will keep using the automatic license plate readers that local police departments rely on to track vehicles passing through town. Residents who protested the cameras told the outlet the devices violate their privacy and create a real threat of misuse by bad actors, and that the technology puts people at risk every day. They argued mass surveillance is not an inevitability, and that Milford would actually be safer if the council voted against renewal.
Village council members declined to comment ahead of the meeting when CBS News reached out, but said they were willing to discuss the matter after Monday night's vote. Residents were expected to attend the meeting in person to make their case directly to the board.
Part of a Statewide Backlash
Milford's vote lands amid what the same CBS News outlet has separately described as mounting resistance to Flock camera programs across Michigan, in a report on a Kent County sheriff's transparency effort. Several metro Detroit communities — including Eastpointe, St. Clair Shores, South Lyon, Monroe County and Independence Township — have ended or scaled back their own Flock contracts in recent months, according to CBS News.
One of the starkest examples came out of Eastpointe, where the city council voted 4-1 to terminate its Flock Safety contract and shut down 18 cameras, according to WXYZ. That decision followed allegations that two Eastpointe police department employees misused the camera system, with one employee facing severe discipline and another incident still under investigation, per a separate CBS News report on the case.
South Lyon took a similar path late last month, when its city council voted 5-2 not to renew its Flock contract and ordered police to cover the two cameras positioned on 10 Mile Road, according to Michigan Advance. The resolution there went further than a simple shutdown, requiring South Lyon police to stop accessing, searching or sharing any camera data except when legally required to do so.
Other Communities Cover Cameras, Cite Vandalism
St. Clair Shores opted for a middle path, covering its 12 Flock cameras after residents raised concerns about privacy, data sharing and potential misuse, with officials planning to revisit the contract in March, according to ClickOnDetroit. Westland, meanwhile, simply let its own contract expire after community pushback against renewal, with its 29 cameras expected to be gradually removed, per a Michigan Public report. Sumpter Township discontinued its agreement after a free trial period, citing public feedback, the same report noted.
Not every removal in the state has been voluntary. The Livingston County Sheriff's Office temporarily took down its Flock cameras after repeated vandalism, according to WLNS/WILX, which also reported that the Lansing City Council voted to end its own Flock Safety contract over the summer.
Statewide Scale and Pending Legislation
The debate playing out in Milford reflects just how widespread Flock's footprint has become in Michigan. More than 100 law enforcement agencies in the state use Flock cameras or similar automated license plate readers, and Flock Safety has contracts with at least 125 Michigan local government agencies, according to reporting from Michigan Public and The News-Herald. The News-Herald has also reported that community pushback against the cameras “really exploded” starting in summer 2025, following reports that the data had been used in immigration-related and abortion-related searches.
In response to the backlash, Flock Safety shifted its default data-retention period from 30 days down to seven, and added safeguards around suspicious database use and access by outside agencies, Michigan Public reported. State lawmakers from both parties have also proposed regulating the cameras; one bill introduced in the Michigan Legislature, HB 6346, would prohibit law enforcement from sharing information obtained from captured license-plate data, though the measure's final status and language remain unclear.
Notably, a separate Michigan Public report published in August listed Milford among several metro Detroit communities — alongside Clawson, Ferndale and Westland — that had already canceled their Flock contracts. That account sits in tension with Monday's scheduled renewal vote in Milford, and neither report resolves which version reflects the village's current contract status heading into the meeting.
