Flock cameras offer mixed bag of increased safety, fear of privacy loss

The City of Oshkosh currently employs the use of Flock Safety cameras, automated license plate readers owned by the city, in order to address crimes in the community. Recently, controversy has arisen about whether to keep this technology monitoring roads in Oshkosh. While some see Flock cameras as a safety measure that police should be able to use, others view such technology with caution due to potential privacy violations. 

Dean Smith, Oshkosh Chief of Police, painted a general picture of what Flock cameras are used for.

“These cameras are used as a tool to assist in the detection and apprehension of vehicles involved in crime and to find vehicles associated with missing people,” he said. 

Originally, according to Karl Buelow of the Oshkosh City Council, the addition of the cameras to the public sphere was unanimously approved. 

“We first got Flock cameras approved back in 2022 and they were put in, in early 2023,” he said. “They were initially approved at zero cost to Oshkosh taxpayers and it was approved 7-0, so no one spoke against it.”

Backlash has since arisen against the renewal of the Flock cameras in the city. Sophomore Lucy Amel feels little concern regarding the equipment due to their very public nature, but sees how it could be construed as invasive. 

“It largely depends on what they can all see, but since the cameras are in public it should be fine to record,” she said. “But I can see how depending on the intent or purpose of the usage, it could be seen as an invasion of privacy.” 

Since the beginning of the year, the City of Oshkosh has owned and operated 26 cameras. Buelow said that these cameras are located in parts of the city with plenty of traffic flow through the day. 

“They are all pointed in the roadways and at the back of cars, and in places where you would expect, going in and leaving town, like North Jackson Street, Algoma Boulevard, on and off ramps,” he said. 

Flock cameras operate by photographing license plate information, which can be pulled up by police on demand and be used to track the vehicle. Buelow noted that this technology is perpetually up and running. 

“AI will read the license plate and store the picture of the license plate and log the data that ‘this car was at this place, at this time’,” he said. “It does this 24/7.” 

The city owns the data, and Buelow said that they choose carefully who they share it with. 

“There is a national Flock camera network, and the data that’s collected by the Flock cameras is owned by the City of Oshkosh,” he said. “Our police chief has chosen to share this information with every police department in our five-state area, which is mostly for trafficking and kidnapping. Flock does not share with any federal government agencies.” 

Smith said that the presence of Flock cameras in Oshkosh has helped the department immensely in solving all-around crime. 

“The department has had numerous successes in solving crime, including a fatal hit and run accident, leads for homicides, and robberies and burglaries,” he said. 

Regardless, one large public criticism Buelow highlighted surrounds concerns over citizen and non-citizen privacy. 

“Some people are really leery about this being used to track refugees and immigrants, or those not born in the United States,” he said. “It gets pretty easy when you start tracking anyone you want.”

Another concern involves abuse of Flock cameras by those who are authorized to access and use them. Buelow listed a few examples of recent Wisconsin cases that involve such exploitations, and recognized that this is a real concern. 

“There are very legit examples of this data being misused,” he said. “For instance, there is an ex-police officer on trial in Menasha right now for using his Flock login to track an ex-girlfriend. There’s another case out of Milwaukee that is really similar. He is being held responsible, but people are afraid of how many of these cases we don’t know about.” 

Amel agreed that only with proper training does it make sense to give officers abilities to access the cameras. 

“I feel like if they have a specific training with it then it’s alright, but otherwise it seems slightly questionable,” she said. 

Officers do not generally need a search warrant to view Flock footage, which Amel believes could raise other questions. 

“Potentially, they could be abused because law enforcement wouldn’t need a search warrant to see said footage,” she said.

Buelow assures that Flock has taken these instances into consideration and is responding accordingly.

“In response to these stories, Flock has upped their securities,” he said. “They’ve instituted an AI tool that automatically sends a captain or sergeant a report if unusual search activity occurs.”

Smith verified that Flock usage is under a microscope at the police department. 

“Flock usage is audited monthly to ensure everything goes along with our policies,” he said. 

Buelow added that data stored by Flock cameras is limited by deletion after a 30-day period. 

“Data stays on the server for exactly 30 days and after that, you cannot search for it,” he said. “On day 31, the information is gone unless an officer downloaded it for a case.”

While addressing further privacy concerns, Buelow stated that claiming these cameras can prevent crime is impossible; the hope is that they will do all that they can to stop crime when it does occur. 

“The Flock camera tool can not prevent crime, but it helps officers solve crimes more efficiently and speedily,” he said. “Unfortunately, we know that the Highway 41 corridor is a trafficking route, and at the end of the day, if one of my kids was kidnapped, I would want the police to have this technology. How could I vote no for this technology for someone else’s kid?”

by Phoebe Fletcher and Genna Blustin

Published April 27, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue VII