STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO – One Colorado city is shutting off its Flock cameras while a neighboring county is bringing them back under tighter rules. On Friday, Steamboat Springs said it will stop using the company’s automated license plate readers, and Summit County said it will resume use after a monthlong pause and policy review.
The two decisions show how differently local agencies are responding to the same technology. Flock’s cameras capture license plates and vehicle details such as make and color, then share that information with customers that include law enforcement.
Supporters say the systems help officers solve crimes and protect the public. Critics argue they raise privacy concerns and can be misused.
Steamboat Springs cites community concerns and immediate shutdown
Steamboat Springs said it has six Flock cameras installed in the city, but officials decided to end the relationship because residents raised concerns. City leaders said they received significant community input in recent weeks, including at a town hall on Aug. 25.
Police Chief Mark Beckett said the city heard that feedback clearly. He said automated license plate reader systems can be useful in solving crimes, but they are not worth keeping if residents do not support or trust them.
The city said the cameras will be deactivated immediately. Officials also said public safety remains a top priority even as they move away from the technology.
Summit County brings Flock back after a 30-day pause
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office took the opposite approach. It said Friday that it will restart use of Flock cameras, but only with operational, procedural and policy changes in place.
The agency paused the system for 30 days to collect community input and review its rules. Sheriff’s office leaders said the feedback they received included both support for the cameras and opposition to them.
Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons called Flock a public-safety tool that has significantly improved the office’s effectiveness. He said the department has used the technology for two years to help find missing people, check on welfare concerns, respond to mental health crises, and prevent, solve and prosecute crimes across the county.
New rules will limit cameras and shorten data retention
The sheriff’s office said it will make several changes as it brings the program back. It plans to issue a new policy for using the technology and handling the information it collects.
It also will limit the number and placement of cameras in unincorporated Summit County. Another change is that the office will participate only in the Colorado Statewide network for information sharing, rather than broader sharing arrangements.
One of the biggest policy shifts is the reduction in image retention. The office said it will shorten the storage period from 30 days to seven days. Leaders also said they will develop a frequently asked questions page for the sheriff’s office website so residents can learn more about the readers.
Colorado agencies are taking different paths on automated readers
The debate over Flock and similar license plate readers has become a wider issue across Colorado. Some agencies are choosing to keep the technology, while others are ending contracts or switching systems.
In Boulder, city officials recently said they will allow their contract with Flock Safety to end. In Moffat County, the sheriff’s office recently removed all of its Flock cameras.
Denver has taken a different route by switching to an automatic license plate camera system from Axon. The contrasting choices show that local officials are still weighing privacy concerns against the promise of faster investigations and stronger public safety tools.
Privacy concerns keep shaping local decisions
Flock’s nationwide network has become a flashpoint because it records information about vehicles and can make that data available to law enforcement customers. That has fueled concern among opponents who worry about privacy violations and misuse.
At the same time, many police and sheriff’s agencies continue to argue that the technology helps them respond more quickly when time matters most. The latest decisions in Steamboat Springs and Summit County reflect that tension.
Both agencies said they heard from residents before acting. But their responses were different: one is turning the cameras off, while the other is keeping them in service with tighter controls and shorter retention rules.
