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WHAT ACTUALLY
HAPPENED.

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Win
The jurisdiction decided against the cameras: not renewed, not pursued, or cancelled.
Partial win
Use was suspended, paused, or narrowed, but the agreement itself still stands.
Ongoing
Live dispute. A vote, a review, or a removal question is still unresolved.
Contract retained
The jurisdiction kept the cameras, whatever the public turnout looked like.
Removal verified
Reporting confirms the hardware actually came down, not just that a vote happened.
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The installation itself is under challenge on road-safety or permitting grounds, separately from any privacy or contract question.
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A new contract was signed or an existing one grew. Recorded because a tracker that only counts wins is advertising.
WinSalem, Massachusetts

Salem ends Flock contract, will use new license plate readers

Published by
The Salem News
Author
Caroline Enos
Date
Location
Salem, Massachusetts
Status
Win

Salem let its Flock Safety contract expire on 30 June 2026 and switched the cameras off on 1 July, after the ACLU of Massachusetts found loopholes in Flock's database that let out-of-state and federal immigration enforcement search local departments' data. Mayor Dominick Pangallo said there were "entirely justifiable concerns about the security of data and the level of sharing with federal agencies"; he and Police Chief Lucas Miller wrote jointly that such data "should be owned and used only in furtherance of Salem's public safety priorities." The honest wrinkle: Salem is not giving up plate readers. It has installed city-owned cameras at high-traffic locations, expected operational by 3 August, that unlike Flock's will not share data with external departments. What ended is the vendor and the data-sharing, not the technology. Salem joins Cambridge (December 2025) and Framingham (June 2026) among Massachusetts communities that have cut ties with Flock.

From the reporting

  • The Flock contract expired 30 June 2026; the cameras stopped operating 1 July.
  • The ACLU of Massachusetts found the database permitted out-of-state law enforcement access, with loopholes allowing federal immigration enforcement to search local data.
  • Replacement cameras are owned and operated by the city, with software still being chosen, expected operational by 3 August 2026.
  • Unlike Flock's units, Salem says the city-owned devices will not share data with external departments.
  • Salem is at least the third Massachusetts community to cut ties, after Cambridge in December 2025 and Framingham in June 2026.

Read the originalThis summary is ours. The reporting is The Salem News's, and the link below opens their page in a new tab.

Open The Salem News report (opens in a new tab)

Inclusion is not independent verification of every claim. Dates are the publisher's publication dates. Corrections are published, not quietly patched: see sources and corrections.