After months of public pressure, the city of Denver plans to stop using its network of Flock Safety cameras. Instead, city leaders hope to install a similar system operated by Axon, a competing provider of automated license plate readers.
Mayor Mike Johnston’s office announced the change on Tuesday morning.
“We’ve heard the community loud and clear and it is time to make a change," Johnston said in a press release. “Axon is among our most reliable partners and will collaborate with us on strong safeguards that protect immigrants, women seeking reproductive healthcare, and the Constitutional rights of Denverites.”
Flock has drawn intense criticism because federal agents have used the platform for immigration enforcement purposes. The company appeared to conceal the existence of a company-run program that helped federal agents search Flock records, as 9News revealed. In Denver, officials were unaware for months that local surveillance data could be searched by agencies around the nation, with few limits or protections, as Denverite reported.
Johnston’s office continues to defend the use of surveillance, saying the cameras have helped to recover more than 400 stolen cars and that they were used in 16 homicide investigations last year.
The city of Denver installed 111 solar-powered Flock cameras across the city in May 2024. But a year later, opposition to the company was building on the Denver City Council. The Johnston administration instead bypassed the council, twice extending the contract without the council’s permission by keeping its cost below a certain threshold.
The full city council will be asked to vote on the new contract with Axon. Axon already provides the Denver Police Department’s body-worn cameras and Tasers.
Johnston’s administration argued that the contract with Axon would go further to protect privacy and civil liberties. Among other changes, Axon does not have a feature that allows police to conduct nationwide searches.
“Denver's contract with Axon will spell out several protections, ensuring Denver’s data cannot be accessed by federal authorities or used for any purposes other than those set forth by the city,” the mayor’s office wrote in a press release.
Data would be retained for 21 days, unless it’s needed for an active investigation. And Axon will have to agree “to abide by Colorado law, including not providing access to Denver data for the purposes of civil immigration enforcement, abortion-related investigations, or any purpose not explicitly agreed to.”
But other details of the new contract remain unclear, including its cost and the number of planned locations for the cameras.
Axon sells several license-plate cameras, including both stationary and portable cameras. Axon says its system can capture license-plate numbers as well as “detailed vehicle attributes.” The company also announced plans in 2025 to integrate with Amazon’s Ring home security platform, allowing people to share footage from their home cameras with police.
