Rapid City SD – If you’ve driven through Rapid City recently, you’ve likely noticed high-tech cameras at the entrances of parking lots and local institutions.

During Monday’s Special City Council budget meeting, Councilor Maher raised the issue of “surveillance pushback,” saying constituents have raised concerns about it.

Police Chief Hedrick responded directly, addressing what he described as a mix-up with a private camera brand. “I think the huge pushback is related to these Flock cameras that have had data breaches and such,” Hedrick told the council. “We, in particular, have stayed away from Flock. We don’t own any Flock cameras.”

Why Flock Has Drawn National Scrutiny

Flock Safety has grown into one of the largest license-plate-reader networks in the country, with the company reporting roughly 120,000 surveillance cameras operating across the U.S. That scale is central to the criticism: civil liberties groups including the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue the system can create a permanent record of where any vehicle has traveled, not just vehicles tied to a crime, which they say raises Fourth Amendment concerns.

Some of the sharpest criticism has followed cases where Flock’s own answers to local officials didn’t hold up.

In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the city council canceled a signed contract renewal within 24 hours after learning a company representative had wrongly told the council the system couldn’t track where a specific vehicle had been over time — it can.

In Colorado, Flock initially denied giving federal agencies access to a town’s plate-reader data, then had to acknowledge it held pilot contracts giving Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security direct access.

Data-sharing has been a recurring national flashpoint: the ACLU has reported Flock data being shared with ICE for deportation efforts, a Texas sheriff using the data to locate a woman who’d had an abortion, and a federal agency using it to identify attendees at a gun show.

Officer misuse has surfaced too.

A Milwaukee police detective used Flock 124 times to track a romantic partner and 55 times to track that partner’s ex before resigning and pleading guilty; one of the officers who had investigated that case was later arrested for misusing the system himself.

ACLU senior policy counsel Chad Marlow called the technology “creepy” and said the opposition to it spans the political spectrum.

The backlash has translated into action: more than 55 localities have ended Flock contracts in the past year.

Among them is the Los Angeles Police Department, the country’s third-largest police force, which let its three-year Flock contract expire on July 11, 2026, rather than renew it. LAPD’s chief information officer, Dean Gialamas, said the decision came down to “serious concerns” about civil liberties and how the collected data was being handled.

(National context above — not specific to RCPD or Rapid City.)

The Private Sector Cameras

While these national privacy battles center on municipal police contracts, the private cameras multiplying across Rapid City’s parking lots and business entrances operate entirely outside that kind of government oversight.

The cameras drawing public attention belong to Flock Safety, a private brand installed by local businesses and institutions to monitor their own properties, separate from city government.

Assistant Chief Scott Sitts pointed to local examples. “There are a lot of Flock cameras out and about, and I see them,” Sitts said. “For example, I drove into the Lowe’s parking lot this weekend — Flock cameras at both entrances. WDT, Flock cameras at all the entrances. So Flock cameras are very popular amongst private businesses to monitor who’s coming and going from the parking lots, but Flock has nothing to do with the City of Rapid City.”

What Businesses Can Do With Their Footage

Flock’s own policy states that customers — including private businesses — own their camera data and decide whether to share it; law enforcement cannot access footage unless the business grants that access.

That leaves the sharing decision in the hands of a store, not a judge, city council, or any public process. Unlike a police department’s use of the technology, there’s no warrant requirement, because it’s a private party voluntarily handing over data it already owns.

Once a business shares that footage, it doesn’t necessarily stay local. The ACLU has reported that a law enforcement agency with Flock network access can run searches “on behalf of” other agencies, including ICE — meaning footage shared by a business into one department’s network can end up reachable by agencies far outside the purpose the camera was installed for.

There’s also no way for the public to opt out or find out how the footage is being used. Anyone who drives past a Flock camera gets logged regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong, and because the cameras sit on private property, none of the transparency tools that apply to government surveillance — public records requests, budget disclosures, council votes — apply to them.

A records request can examine RCPD’s four cameras. There’s no equivalent path to examine what a private business chooses to do with data from cameras like the ones outside Lowe’s or WDT.

Flock says footage is typically stored for up to 30 days — enough time for it to be searched, shared, or pulled into another agency’s request, often without the person whose plate was captured, or even the business that installed the camera, ever knowing it happened.

How the RCPD Actually Operates

The RCPD uses four LPR cameras, run through the Axon platform rather than Flock — the same system the department uses for body camera footage.

“Axon is a very secure digital platform,” Sitts said, noting it is CJIS-compliant. “Axon stores all of our digital evidence, so we have a very secure platform with no known data breaches. And on top of that, we have a very strict policy on when and who can access the information from these systems.

What the Cameras Do – And Don’t Do

“There’s a misconception out there that using these you could follow people around. That’s simply not the case,” Sitts said. “We have four in our high crime areas. We can’t follow people around with four in our high crime areas.”

Hedrick described the system’s scope: “Stolen vehicles, missing endangered individuals, and serious violent crimes is what these cameras are used for. They’re not there to monitor traffic, investigate misdemeanor crimes, or issue citations for something like running a stop sign — it just doesn’t do that.”

Sourcing

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Primary source — meeting recording

• Special City Council budget meeting, relevant exchange runs approx. 1:59:52–2:05:35: https://www.youtube.com/live/5ygz0RNU1MY?is=Cro3w2LgYMS16

Sourcing for “What Businesses Can Do With That Footage” section

• Customer/business owns data, controls sharing, law enforcement needs permission — Flock Safety’s own site: https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/who-really-has-access-to-your-flock-data
• Agencies can search “on behalf of” other agencies including ICE — ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/how-to-fight-deployment-of-flock-and-other-mass-surveillance-license-plate-readers-in-your-community
• No opt-out, all passing vehicles logged — NC Journal of Law & Technology: https://journals.law.unc.edu/ncjolt/blogs/under-surveillance-constitutional-concerns-surrounding-flock-cameras/
• ~30-day data retention window — same NC Journal of Law & Technology piece above

Sourcing for “Why Flock Has Drawn National Scrutiny” section

• ~120,000 cameras nationwide; Milwaukee detective misuse case; Chad Marlow “creepy” quote — CNN, July 26, 2026: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/26/us/flock-cameras-surveillance-abuse
• ACLU/EFF Fourth Amendment argument — Berkeleyside: https://www.berkeleyside.org/2026/07/13/flock-safety-cameras-berkeley-license-plate-readers
• Oshkosh, WI contract cancellation over the “heat map” answer — Landline Media: https://landline.media/whos-watching-your-vehicle-report-raises-new-concerns-about-license-plate-readers/
• Loveland, CO federal access denial-then-admission (CBP/DHS) — ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/flock-safety-credibility-lost-as-it-repeatedly-lies-to-city-councils-police-departments-and-public-across-the-country
• ICE data sharing, Texas sheriff/abortion case, gun show attendee ID — ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/how-to-fight-deployment-of-flock-and-other-mass-surveillance-license-plate-readers-in-your-community
• 55+ localities ending contracts — ACLU “Get The Flock Out” campaign page: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/get-the-flock-out
• LAPD letting its Flock contract expire (July 11, 2026), CIO Dean Gialamas quote — TechCrunch, July 13, 2026: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/lapd-lets-contract-with-surveillance-giant-flock-expire-citing-serious-concerns-over-civil-liberties-and-privacy/ (also independently reported by ABC7 Los Angeles: https://abc7.com/post/lapd-ending-agreement-surveillance-company-flock-safety/19483200/)