Cities nationwide are backing away from Flock. Milwaukee plans to keep it despite unproven safeguards

By Lilly Peacock

Six weeks after Mayor Cavalier Johnson promised new restrictions on Milwaukee’s license-plate surveillance network, the police department still hasn't put them in its written policy. A new audit by the Fire and Police Commission says MPD has not supplied enough evidence to show whether its training, user controls, internal audits, and vendor safeguards work as described.

MPD still intends to renew its contract with Flock Safety when it expires in January. The 42-page audit, released ahead of a commission meeting Thursday evening, does not find MPD in violation of its rules. It is the first stage of a longer review, based mainly on a July interview with MPD Risk Manager James Lewis.

Milwaukee is one piece of a much larger fight. Flock now operates about 120,000 cameras across 49 states, and by August, more than 50 communities had canceled, suspended, or rejected contracts this year. Across the country, cities are debating access and oversight rules after the cameras are already in place. Milwaukee shows how messy that can get: Officials have promised new safeguards and decided to keep Flock, but the department’s written policy has yet to catch up.

The policy MPD sent Amphibian was nearly two years old. Standard Operating Procedure 735 took effect Oct. 7, 2024, and had never been revised, Open Records Supervisor Sgt. Christine Gonzalez confirmed Oct. 1.

“This is the current policy,” she wrote. (The records are available here.)

The next day, MPD said it was drafting a replacement, but the unions representing department employees still had to review the proposal. The department did not say how long that would take.

On Sept. 30, the ACLU of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Turners and 43 other organizations asked the city to end the Flock contract. At an Oct. 5 budget hearing, about 30 people opposed renewal, and ending the contract was the most common request of the night.

“Other cities and Milwaukee County have chosen to end their contract with Flock, and we need to do the same,” said Angela Lang of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities.

A recording of the hearing shows Johnson was there. Officials told speakers not to expect answers.

County supervisors voted 16-0 to remove Flock cameras from county parks, a move first reported by Urban Milwaukee. County Executive David Crowley signed the resolution Oct. 12. The action does not reach MPD’s citywide network.

Johnson announced Milwaukee’s restrictions Aug. 31. Only supervisors could search Flock, and only for serious crimes, critical missing-person cases, abductions and drug trafficking. The commission would audit twice a year. And MPD Flock data would be limited to MPD. Two days later, an MPD spokesperson told Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service the changes would be written into policy.

The 2024 policy says plate data “may be shared with and provided to any other law enforcement agencies.” MPD says it no longer shares Flock data, but it once shared with at least 230 Wisconsin agencies and the Chicago Police Department, CBS 58 reported. Asked whether ICE ever had access, an MPD representative said, “I don’t know the specifics of what those relationships were when we first turned on the cameras,” according to FOX6.

The audit found the same gap between assertion and proof. Lewis said users train through an internal video and a train-the-trainer system. The commission could not confirm that anyone approved the material, kept records, or verified completion. MPD gives no knowledge test and no annual refresher.

Amphibian’s records raise a more immediate question. A Sept. 15 roster listed 92 active Flock accounts. Of 267 training entries, only 19 matched those accounts. MPD produced no current training record for 73 listed users.

The audit puts the number of MPD members with access after the Sept. 1 restrictions at 67. Lewis earlier estimated 799 accounts, including inactive and duplicate ones, and MPD cannot permanently delete accounts. The department has not explained the discrepancy.

MPD also could not say whether Flock employees can search Milwaukee data or whether the company uses it for artificial-intelligence training. It has never independently audited Flock’s compliance with the contract.

The promised restrictions followed misconduct MPD did not catch on its own. Former officer Josue Ayala used Flock to follow a romantic partner and that person’s former partner, searching one plate 124 times and the other 55 times, according to WISN. One target discovered that they’d been tracked through Have I Been Flocked, a public database built from police records. Ayala pleaded guilty to attempted misconduct in public office and received a year of probation and a $500 fine.

Tehrangi Chapman, the Internal Affairs detective assigned to investigate Ayala, was later charged with felony misconduct in public office. Prosecutors allege he ran 20 unauthorized Flock searches on two people and put a GPS tracker on one person’s car. Chapman has pleaded not guilty.

According to MPD, the city deploys 60 fixed plate-reader cameras. Thirty-eight of them are Flock cameras, and 79 are on cruisers. It asks MPD to show whether the network’s value can be measured and its risks controlled, and to respond within 30 to 60 days.

Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic and Ald. Alex Brower want a decision before then. They have proposed requiring the council’s Finance and Personnel Committee to approve plate-reader contracts. Dimitrijevic has said she and other council members will pull plate-reader funding from the 2027 budget until the city has a public policy.

“People do not want to see mass surveillance like this across the political spectrum,” Brower told CBS 58.

For now, MPD has a promise, a 2024 policy, and an audit full of questions the department has not answered.

Lilly Peacock is a senior at Marquette University studying journalism and sports communication, with a minor in public relations. A native of Northbrook, Illinois, she reports for the Marquette Wire and served as its assistant news editor during the 2025-26 academic year. Peacock is a student intern with Marquette’s O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, working with journalist Matt Stroud on Dead Reckoning. Her work has been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club, including a bronze award for editorial writing. She has also interned with Good Karma Brands Milwaukee and hopes to pursue a career in sports reporting and writing.