Resident urges Dearborn Heights to cancel Flock license-plate reader contract, citing privacy and misuse concerns
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Summary
A resident asked the council to nullify the city's contract with Flock automatic license-plate readers, alleging constitutional and documented abuses and urging the council to revisit the contract in a study session; the mayor offered to meet with the police chief and bring the item back for discussion.
Dearborn Heights — During public comment at the Feb. 24 council meeting, resident Simon Yeltzman asked the council to cancel the city's contract with Flock, a company that provides automated license-plate readers (ALPRs). Yeltzman said the devices represent "dragnet surveillance" and alleged misuse and civil-rights harms in other jurisdictions.
Yeltzman told the council he would ask that the city "nullify" the contract and cited a range of concerns, including claims that Flock data had been shared with federal agencies and abused by law enforcement elsewhere. "Flock's automatic license plate readers are a violation of the Fourth Amendment... They represent dragnet surveillance, which is unconstitutional," he said in public comments and offered to provide citations to cases he referenced.
Mayor Baidoun responded that he would meet with the police chief and that the council could consider the item at a study session. "I promise I'll sit down with the police chief," the mayor said, and suggested further discussion and review with staff.
No formal motion to cancel or modify the contract was made at the meeting; the item remained a public-comment request and may be scheduled for study-session follow-up if council or staff choose to pursue it.
