The City of Troy's 26 Flock cameras have led to hours-long public meetings, a tug of war over possible restrictions and even a lawsuit.
Across the river, the City of Albany has quietly installed at least 66 Flock cameras — a larger number per capita and per square foot of city land.
Documents obtained by WAMC show that the Albany first began installing Flock's automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras in August 2024, with the first camera going up at the intersection of Chapel Street and Sheridan Avenue in Downtown Albany.
At least eight ALPRs have been installed in 2026, and the installation of at least one more camera is pending.
The documents show the city retains data from Flock cameras for 30 days. The footage can be accessed by other local and state law enforcement agencies utilizing the Flock camera system, Albany police spokesperson Derek Ellis said in a statement. Ellis added that the department's policy is to only share data for "legitimate police purposes related to criminal activity, not civil issues."
"Concerns regarding privacy are certainly understood, but the overall goal is to utilize this technology to enhance public safety," Ellis wrote. "As the capital city of New York, we have attempted to have a wide coverage of license plate readers and other technology to address all public safety concerns, including crime, terrorism and the search for vulnerable missing persons."
APD audits all its technology and is "currently in the process of reviewing our policies related to Flock technology," Ellis said.
Tom Hoey, who represents the 15th ward in the Albany Common Council and chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, said the cameras are sufficiently regulated and useful tools for the police. Hoey declined to answer questions about the license plate readers.
"I'm going to go with whatever our chief says," Hoey said. "We have crime problems in the city, and anything we can do to help fight crime is important. Now I want to make another statement: You walk out your door, you're in the public domain. Roads, everything is public. There's no privacy guaranteed when you walk out on your street. So, I think that's something that, as citizens, we've got to realize."
Albany's initial contract with Flock was signed in June 2024 by then-Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who left office at the end of last year. A spokesperson for Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs didn't respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Some Albany residents have started to call on the city to cancel its contract with Flock, which it could do at any time with 30 days notice. The activist group Indivisible Albany hosted a "Flock Safari" so that city residents could identify Flock cameras in Washington Park in August. That same week, a small group went to an Albany Common Council meeting to oppose the cameras.
"Although Flock claims to care about safety, their cameras are used to stalk women, spy on children in parks and gymnasiums, and track citizens engaged in activities New Yorkers fight to protect, such as legal abortions, immigration hearings, and nonviolent protests," Tor Loney, one of two people who spoke to the Common Council about Flock cameras, said during the public comment period. "And we cannot trust our contracts [with Flock] to prevent this."
Still, the opposition to Flock cameras in Albany has been much more muted than in neighboring Troy, where more than 100 residents spoke out against the license plate readers at a six-hour city council meeting. The City Council is set to restrict the use of the cameras and has sued the mayor over the issue.
Matt Brockbank, a coordinator with the anti-license plate reader activist organization DeFlock New York, said Troy's City Council moved to restrict the Flock cameras partly because of how close-knit the city is.
"The community is just smaller, and so a lot of people kind of knew each other a little bit better," Brockbank said in an interview. "And we also had people, obviously, on the City Council who were already against this kind of stuff, so that was just like a much easier pitch."
DeFlock New York is now trying to get the Albany Common Council to ban license plate reader cameras. Brockbank said they haven't polled the council's 15 members yet, but he feels confident they'll be able to get a majority to back banning the cameras.
"Honestly, I think if you have a very reasonable, respectful and fact-based conversation about ALPR technology and especially about Flock, then I think it's kind of very clear that Flock, A, is not the way to go, and B, local laws that protect our rights are the right way to go," Brockbank said.
Albany's plans to install the cameras go back much further than 2024. The city first solicited bids for license plate reader cameras in 2021, garnering proposals from Flock and the lesser known ALPR company Rekor.
In that bid and a subsequent bid, Flock advertised that enough ALPR cameras could create "virtual gate" around a town, and that its cameras could track cars with no plates and at night. Flock included contact information for four law enforcement agencies in New York State that it would vouch for Flock's effectiveness. The list included the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office and the Town of Newburgh Police Department, as well as the police departments in Utica and Lancaster.
The company also claimed that cities that adopted Flock saw a 60% drop in local crime, citing a 2019 study conducted by the Cobb County Police Department.
The study, which was not included in the bid, shows that non-residential burglaries and illegally entering automotive vehicles fell by 63% and 64% between 2018 and 2019. The Cobb County Police Department installed Flock cameras in March 2019. Vehicle theft fell by 13% during the same time period, and theft overall fell by 6%.
The study did not address whether other factors may have contributed to the falling crime rates.
Albany's Board of Contract and Supply approved Flock's bid and ultimately purchased 10 Flock cameras and three mobile license plate readers for $47,000 dollars, plus $40,500 annually over the next two years.
Flock LPR cameras generally cost $3,000 per year per camera to operate. Albany has also purchased at least two dozen CCTV cameras from Flock.
