The future of Flock Safety automated license plate readers, such as this one, is up for discussion in the city of Ferndale.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published October 14, 2025 | Updated October 17, 2025 2:37pm
FERNDALE — The Ferndale City Council will have to decide whether to continue its relationship with Flock Safety cameras and its automated license plate readers.
At its Sept. 29 meeting, the council received a presentation from Ferndale Police Chief Dennis Emmi regarding the city’s participation with Flock Safety cameras over the past two years. The automated license plate readers capture images of license plates to detect whether the vehicle is involved in an investigation and if police should proceed with a traffic stop.
The council approved the use of automated license plate readers in March 2023. It wasn’t until February 2024 when 16 cameras were installed. One was later removed, as it was determined that the city wasn’t getting a return on investment from it, and 15 were left in Ferndale for the remaining time period.
From the data collected between July 1, 2024, to Aug. 1, 2025, the average number of license plates read a day was 140,300, the total number of hot list alerts was 12,282, the total number of Ferndale crimes investigated by detectives was 123, the total number of improper traffic stops by patrol officers was zero, the number of cases cleared by arrest was 12 and the number of leads generated was seven.
Of the crimes investigated, the highest number of crimes were larceny and retail frauds, fleeing and eluding, stolen vehicles, vandalism and felonious assaults. There also were cases of domestic violence, attempted homicide, narcotics, stalking, home invasion, fraud and weapons offense.
Emmi said the data didn’t show crimes that were solved in other jurisdictions, including one homicide case in Oak Park involving the killing of a mother and her 12-year-old child.
“Our Flock cameras contributed to that investigation. It was critical in recovering evidence and locating the whereabouts of the suspect,” he said.
“This is actual crime being solved using this technology,” Emmi said
Emmi also said the cameras were used to help notable cases in Ferndale, including the killing of DoorDash driver Mamadou Diallo in March in a road rage incident, and a shooting outside Orchid Theatre in May,
“This is the crime where the victims are most impacted, this community is most impacted, and this closes the loop and provides some closure to some people who are really vulnerable,” he said.
Emmi’s recommendation to the City Council was to renew the automated license plate readers program for another two years, as it had generated leads, led to arrests and closed cases for the department. He also recommended the reduction of cameras from 15 to nine.
“This in essence leaves eastbound into the city on Eight Mile, westbound into the city on Eight Mile, north and southbound Woodward and Nine Mile. That’s where we’ve really realized that we’re getting the most bang for our buck as far as data,” he said.
If approved, the department recommends funding the program through drug forfeiture funds. At a cost of $3,000 per camera per year, the cameras would cost $27,000 per year for two years and a total of $54,000.
Numerous residents shared their concerns about Flock and its data collection. Peggy Harp said it concerned and disappointed her that the city and police went with something that didn’t align with Ferndale’s policies.
“We haven’t done our due diligence as a community, as a City Council, as a Police Department, and I think it’s a big ask that we trust this technology from a for-profit company backed by venture capital, and they have shown themselves to be untrustworthy,” she said.
Residents also singled out how Flock has a history of changing its policies and asked if anything would stop them from changing them in the future. In June 2025, Flock changed its policy so that searches related to immigration and abortion were prohibited systemwide, and image sharing is granted if there is an exact plate hit when participating in a nationwide network search.
As long as Ferndale has opted into national lookup, if another agency is opted into it, the other agency could access the city’s network and look anything up as long as it had a plate number. When asked, Emmi stated that Ferndale currently is opted in, though it could choose to opt out.
There also have been issues with Flock in the state of Illinois, as many residents brought up, where the company shared data with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection through a pilot program.
Flock said in a statement released in August that it doesn’t have a contractual relationship with any U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency; it did engage in limited pilots with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations to assist them in combating human trafficking and fentanyl distribution.
“We clearly communicated poorly,” founder and CEO Garrett Langley stated in August. “We also didn’t create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users. I appreciate the sensitivities surrounding local and federal cooperation on law enforcement matters, and I understand that in order to allow communities to align with their laws and societal values, these definitions and product features are critical. As of last week, all ongoing federal pilots have been paused.”
Resident Simon Cohen shared his discomfort with the program and Flock’s track record.
“We are paying money to give our private data to a private company. Our data, which is then protected by a corporate privacy policy,” he said. “I would like to rhetorically ask who they’re going to ask before changing it again, because I know it’s not going to be me and it’s not going to be you guys and it’s not going to be anyone in the room. … At their whim, when they decide to change their policy, our data will be able to be given to whomever they so please. I don’t want to be tracked. I don’t want to be in a database. I can’t imagine anyone in this room is happy to be on a server somewhere in a dark room.”
According to the city, the issue possibly will come back before council at its Nov. 24 meeting.
“I appreciate everyone coming out in support or against, because it’s important for us to hear both sides and the reasoning behind it,” Mayor Raylon Leaks-May said.
The city of Ferndale will be hosting two community meetings on Flock next month. The first will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, on Zoom. The second will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at City Hall, 300 E. Nine Mile Road. The Zoom information will be provided at a later date.
For more information, visit ferndalemi.gov or email information@ferndalemi.gov.