Administration withdraws Flock Safety camera items after public privacy concerns

The Middletown administration withdrew two agenda items on March 3 that would have authorized installation of six Flock Safety license‑plate cameras and a one‑year subscription funded from the Rescue Wagon Fund. The administration moved to withdraw both items and the council approved the withdrawal without debate.

Several members of the public used the meeting’s public forum to urge the council to reject expanded camera programs altogether. Lawrence Frank criticized the proposal as an intrusion on constitutional freedoms and warned Flock’s systems could be used to catalog license plates and associate location data into databases that could be queried for a wide range of activity. He argued the proposal represented an overreach by local law enforcement and raised questions about who defines terms such as “terrorist‑related activity” and how national license‑plate data pools are accessed and used.

Town staff said the items were withdrawn at the administration's request; the police chief’s presentation had been circulated to council prior to the meeting but was not taken up. No formal motion on camera procurement was made or voted on after the withdrawal. The administration did not provide a timeline for reintroducing the items and councilors did not take a formal position at the meeting.