Longmont council approves switch from Flock to Axon ALPR system with transparency conditions

Longmont City Council voted unanimously March 24 to move the city's automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) program from Flock to Axon, following public comment calling for stricter privacy protections and a months-long staff review of alternatives.

Council member Jake Marcin moved the measure, asking that the transition include three conditions: (1) that Longmont retain primary ownership and control of ALPR data and the matter return to council if Axon changes data-sharing defaults; (2) continued public transparency reporting through an ALPR portal listing locations, usage metrics and partner agencies; and (3) a one-year informational council review of program usage, compliance and community feedback. Mayor Susie Hidalgo Fering seconded and the motion carried unanimously.

Public safety staff told council that the department paused further work with Flock after community concerns about a federal pilot program and other practices. Police Chief David Moore said Axon, the city's existing evidence-management vendor, offers contract terms and technical features that give the department greater confidence: device-level AES-256 encryption, government-cloud storage on U.S. servers, role-based access controls, audit trails and contractual guarantees that the Longmont Police Department (LPD) owns and controls retention settings.

Moore stressed policy limits on operational use: ALPR queries must be tied to a public-safety purpose (for example, a stolen-vehicle investigation or an endangered person), and every query is logged and audited. "LPR alerts do not provide a sole basis for arrest or enforcement and must be independently verified through other databases," he said.

Assistant Chief Phil Petrowski walked council through technical differences he said favor Axon: the city would own the cameras and encrypted data on-device at rest, Axon's default sharing is opt-in (rather than the opt-out model attributed to some competitors), and images would be retained 30 days unless converted to evidence. Petrowski said Axon holds certifications such as SOC 2 Type II and CJIS, and that Axon engineers cannot access agency data without a ticketed request and justification.

Community speakers at length urged the council to cancel Flock and either remove cameras or adopt strict local rules. Speakers raised concerns about broad databases of movement data, unclear access by federal agencies, vendor error rates and the potential chilling effects of dragnet surveillance. Deflock Longmont and other local speakers asked for additional protections, including limits on historic searches.

Council discussion focused on balancing public-safety uses cited by police with privacy and oversight expectations from residents. Several council members said staff had incorporated community concerns into the review and that contracting language must reflect the council's conditions. City staff said they will continue contract negotiations and return with finalized contract language and an updated transparency portal showing camera locations, number and type of searches and partner agencies.

What happens next: Staff will finalize agreements with Axon per council direction and implement the transparency reporting and the one-year program review. The council's action does not immediately activate equipment; further operational steps and contract execution will be public records once completed.