On October 20, City Council voted unanimously to stop using Flock, effective immediately. Thank you, City Council, for listening to our concerns! While each city signs its own Flock contract, the issue of surveillance is global. Boulder, Erie, and Broomfield all still have Flock cameras. We need to help them get rid of Flock too.
Your car doesn’t stop at the city line, and neither do the cameras. Lafayette showed that a few dozen residents can change a council’s mind. Our neighbors can do the same, and we can help.
Council has now voted twice to end Flock, the second time unanimously and effective immediately. What’s left is making sure the cameras come down, the data is deleted, and it can’t come back quietly.
Thank you to Lafayette City Council for its unanimous vote on October 20, and to Mayor Pro Tem Tim Barnes and Councilors Kyle Beaulieu, David Fridland, Adam Gianola, and Annmarie Jensen, who first voted for the budget without Flock on October 6. And thank you to everyone who showed up: about 30 residents spoke and 74 wrote in. Not one asked to keep Flock.
“I’ve never seen such a big turnout for anything that I have ever worked on.”
“That is the largest community engagement I’ve seen in my 17-year career.”
Every number here comes from the City of Lafayette, its police department’s public Flock portal, or documents released under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Council approved the five-year contract in January 2024 as one line on the consent agenda, with no separate discussion. It runs through early 2029, but Colorado law doesn’t let a city commit future budgets without a vote of the people. So the agreement says it ends, with no penalty, in any year council doesn’t fund it. Flock then removes its cameras at its own expense. That made the 2027 budget the real decision. After residents spoke up in September, city staff prepared two versions of the budget, one with Flock and one without. On October 6 council chose Resolution 2026-24B, the one without. The difference is $77,500.
“Any failure of Customer’s governing body to annually appropriate adequate monies… shall terminate this Agreement… and such termination shall be without penalty or other cost to Customer.”
Getting Flock out of Lafayette was the first step. Boulder, Broomfield, and Erie still run Flock cameras, and most of us pass them on the way to work, school, or the grocery store. Each one photographs every car that goes by, whether or not anyone is suspected of anything.
“Not all ALPR cameras in the vicinity of Lafayette are part of the City of Lafayette’s contract and may be contracted by corporations or neighboring municipalities.”
The most important piece is to get enough people to show up at council meetings and write in comments. Lafayette is a small city, so a few dozen people can make a big difference. Here are some other concrete things we did.
On September 15, eleven residents spoke about Flock in Lafayette. On October 6, 26 did, and council voted to end it. It can work next door too.
Live, work, or shop in Boulder, Broomfield, or Erie? Speak at public comment or write to the council. Ask them to end their Flock contract. A few sentences is plenty.
Boulder · Broomfield · ErieThe exit clause, the records requests, the budget timing, and how we filled the room. Everything we did in Lafayette, written down so others can do it faster.
How we did it →A few emails a month: meeting dates, what happened, and what’s next. Enter your email, then click the link in the confirmation we send. Your address is never shared.