Flock out, Axon in: Kenosha police lead surveillance tech shift

KENOSHA, Wis. - Police departments across Wisconsin are covering up cameras and canceling contracts as the backlash against Flock Safety continues to gain steam. But AI-powered vehicle tracking is not going away anytime soon.

Beyond Flock

Big picture view:

Flock may be the current poster child of government surveillance overreach, but it is far from the only player in the game. Some communities are quietly signing long-term deals with a Flock competitor that already has a strong foothold in police technology.

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Make no mistake, Flock cameras are helping police catch dangerous criminals.

"It is finding amber alerts and stolen cars," said Harry Maugans of Privacy Bee. "It is doing good things."

But the company's nationwide network of more than 120,000 automated license plate-reading cameras has a dark side that some police chiefs seem reluctant to talk about.

"Feeling like we’re being watched all the time," said Jay Stanley, policy analyst for the ACLU.

From large-scale data collection to mistaken identity to a rapidly growing list of rogue officers using the system like their own private search engine.

"You don't get rid of the tool," Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said. "You hold the person who used the tool accountable."

170 officers accused of misuse

By the numbers:

In February, Milwaukee Police recommended criminal charges against officer Josue Ayala for using Flock to stalk his ex-girlfriend. He resigned and was later convicted. In July, prosecutors charged a second Milwaukee cop – Det. Tehrangi Chapman – for doing the same thing.

But it is hardly just a Milwaukee problem. FOX6 Investigators have identified at least 170 individual officers across the country who have been accused of abusing Flock data – 11 in Wisconsin alone. And those are just the ones known about.

"We don’t really know how big the iceberg is below the water line," said Stanley, who’s been warning about Flock's "creepy" cameras for years – a message that suddenly seems to be landing.

"This has been a remarkable public uprising," Stanley said.

Nationwide Flock outcry 

What they're saying:

The nationwide outcry against Flock has some agencies promising stricter controls.

"You have to tighten up that circle of who has access," Norman said.

Others are cutting ties altogether. In recent weeks, at least eight local agencies have said they're canceling their Flock contracts, including five in Fond du Lac County. Sheboygan and Kenosha have covered their Flock cameras with bags. The Racine County Sheriff's Office already started removing the poles.

"I think it's kind of gone away from what it's intention was," Kenosha Ald. Art Debaere said. The 17th District alderman emphasized that no one in the city of Kenosha has been caught misusing the system, but he is aware of the optics.

"The bad press we’re hearing about with Flock, it hasn’t hit Kenosha city, but we just want to move away from that."

FOX6 Investigators: "You thought it was time to move on to something with less controversy, less trouble."
Debaere: "Correct."

From Flock to Axon

Why you should care:

That shift started in January when Kenosha signed a long-term contract with Axon, one of Flock's top competitors.

"We are maximizing the savings to the city," said Joe Labatore, deputy police chief, during a December 2025 meeting of Kenosha’s Public Safety Committee. 

Axon already provides the police department's body cameras, Tasers, and cloud-based evidence system. Now, that catalog is expanding to Outpost. Introduced by Axon CEO Rick Smith in 2025 during "Axon Week," the company’s annual technology and public safety expo, Outpost is Axon’s version of the Flock Falcon LPR camera. It’s a fixed pole automated license plate reading system with an added twist.

"We give you ALPR and live video in one unit," Smith told the audience at Axon Week in 2025.

Now Kenosha is in the process of replacing its 31 Flock cameras with 31 Outpost cameras.

"So it’s not going anywhere," Maugans said. "ALPR is not going anywhere."

Harry Maugans is CEO of Privacy Bee, a personal data removal service not far from Flock's Atlanta headquarters.

"It’s not about a single company," Maugans said. "It’s about mass surveillance."

Reluctant Kenosha police chief

Local perspective:

That surveillance apparatus is being designed, in many cases, without public input. Kenosha signed its new Axon contract in January, but eight months later, no one in Kenosha government has mentioned Outpost in a public meeting.

FOX6 Investigators: "Should your police chief be talking about this, so taxpayers in Kenosha know what’s going on?"
Debaere: "That, you’d have to ask him."

FOX6 Investigators asked the Kenosha Police Department for an interview six times between Aug. 25 and Sept. 2. On the morning of Sept. 2, Lt. Adam Jurgens emailed: "We are unfortunately unavailable for an interview."

So, FOX6 Investigators stopped by the Kenosha police station.

FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn: "I just want to have a conversation with you."
Police Chief Patrick Patton: "Bryan, your reputation precedes you. I’ve been contacted by every chief not to even talk to you."
Polcyn: "Because I hold them accountable."

Eventually, Patton invited us into his office.

"We understand the concern with surveillance," he said.

Traffic analytics for sale

Dig deeper:

Patton developed concerns of his own after Flock tried to sell "traffic analytics" data to the city of Sheboygan in March. In the email to Sheboygan’s Public Works department, a Flock sales rep offered to sell five years of traffic and speed monitoring data that he said Flock cameras were already capturing – no need for a software or hardware upgrade.

Patton said he and other chiefs had no idea the cameras were doing more than tracking license plates and vehicle features.

"If trust is eroded, and we have to sell that trust we have with the vendor to the community," Patton said, "I can’t maintain the trust I need to have." 

Patton said Axon offers better control over its data with inter-agency sharing turned off by default, adding "we know this tool is effective." He said he is trying to "find a sweet spot" to balance privacy and public safety.

With Axon's ever-expanding tech library, Stanley fears it is trying to become the "operating system" of local police departments.

"Communities should beware of putting a private for-profit company at the heart of a police department like that," Stanley said.

Maugans is worried about what comes next.

"At what point do we cross that line?" Maugans said.

The lights are watching

Dig deeper:

Consider Axon's newest ALPR offering – Lightpost. It turns the lights already on public streets into full-fledged tools of government surveillance.

"Now streetlights can do more than light the street," Smith said. "They can protect it."

"This is starting to feel Orwellian," Maugans said. "This is very 1984."

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Patton said Kenosha is not quite ready for that.

"It seems like a very good technology," Patton said. "But right now we didn’t want to make that jump."

"Is this a power we want them to have?" Stanley said.

Data and policies

What's next:

Whether it is Flock or Axon, Kenosha police said they already have rules in place to prevent officer misuse of license plate data. That includes a requirement that every search be associated with a case number, and that officers on routine patrol cannot search the data without prior approval from a supervisor.

As for traffic analytics, Flock said it uses only aggregate, statistical data that has been separated from individual vehicle records. Unlike license plate data, which is routinely deleted after 30 days, Flock keeps the traffic data for five years and then offers to sell it back to the city for transportation planning.

Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Bryan Polcyn and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.