Democracy is supposed to mean that when a city council votes to cancel a contract, the contract gets canceled. Yet across the country, Flock Safety is turning that principle upside down. In Plymouth, Minnesota, the city council voted to cancel its Flock contract on September 22, officially notifying the company the following day. But when Flock refused to respond or comply, Plymouth Police Chief Eric Fadden found himself in an absurd position: he had to direct his own staff to physically disconnect the power cords from the cameras to ensure they stopped recording. As Fadden explained, 'After hearing nothing for more than a week, I directed our staff to disconnect the power cords from the cameras in order to be sure that they are not functioning or recording plates.' A police chief ordering the disabling of equipment—the very thing vandals do—because a company won't respect a municipal decision. This is not how government is supposed to work.
Flock's intransigence has forced other communities into equally uncomfortable positions. Crystal's police chief Pete Underthun took matters further, personally removing cameras and poles himself, storing them in the city's garage while waiting for Flock to pick them up. In Dayton, Minnesota, the situation became even more brazen. After the city removed cameras and notified Flock on September 18, 2026, that the program was on hold, Flock contractors continued their work regardless. As the city noted in a Facebook post, 'the camera was placed back into service without authorization.' Staff found one additional camera had also been reinstalled, forcing another removal.
What makes this particularly galling is that Flock holds all the hardware—it owns the cameras and is contractually responsible for installation and removal. Yet the company seems willing to ignore explicit cancellation directives and even reinstall equipment after cities have removed it. When Elgin Community College tried covering cameras with trash bags while waiting for removal between December 2025 and April 2026, Flock contractors removed the bags multiple times, apparently to 'fix' the cameras. Only when the original contract expired did Flock finally arrange removal.
Flock's response to KARE 11 was remarkably evasive: 'We are proud of the impact our technology had in Plymouth and Dayton. We respect the cities' decisions and are working with the customers to have the cameras removed.' Pride and respect are hollow words when coupled with inaction. Dayton's city administrator Zach Doud said Flock told him removal would take 60 days, but there's been no transparency about the actual status of these requests.
Cities shouldn't have to become vigilantes to enforce their own democratic decisions. Whether Flock is deliberately obstructing removals or simply overwhelmed by cancellations, the result is the same: a company that won't take no for an answer. Communities deserve genuine accountability, not the surveillance equivalent of Hotel California—where, as the Eagles sang, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.