PETITION: TERMINATE THE CITY OF PENSACOLA’S CONTRACT WITH FLOCK SAFETY

To: Mayor D.C. Reeves, Pensacola Police Department, and the Pensacola City Council

We, the undersigned residents, voters, and taxpayers of Pensacola, Florida, demand that the City immediately terminate its contract with Flock Safety and deactivate all automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras installed within our community.

This city, through the Pensacola Police Department, quietly signed a two-year contract with Flock Safety on July 30, 2025, to install 18 AI-powered surveillance cameras. This technology was presented euphemistically to the public as simple "traffic cameras" or crime-fighting tools, but the reality is far more invasive. In practice, these devices constitute a mass surveillance dragnet straight out of a dystopian science fiction movie.

We oppose this system for the following reasons:

1. Warrantless Surveillance Violates Our Rights:

Flock cameras continuously record the movements of every driver, capturing license plates, vehicle details (make, model, color), and distinguishing features like bumper stickers or roof racks. This data is stored and searchable for 30 days by default. This tracking occurs without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. We do not consent to having our daily movements, including trips to our doctors, our places of worship, our political meetings, or our families’ homes, logged in a database accessible by the state.

2. Data is Shared Beyond Our Control:

The Flock system operates as a national network. While local officials may have intended these cameras only for local use, data is often shared with thousands of other agencies across the country. Many cities, like Lynnwood, Washington, discovered after the fact that outside agencies, including those in different states, had much broader access to their data than intended. We have no guarantee that our private location history won’t be accessed by a wide range of outside agencies who do not have our community member’s best interests at heart.

3. Risk of Overreach and Abuse:

In the current political climate, the risk of this data being used for federal immigration enforcement is real and present. Audit logs from police departments nationwide have shown searches conducted on behalf of agencies like ICE. Flock has admitted to pilot programs with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. Furthermore, documented cases of law enforcement personnel misusing this data to stalk ex-partners prove that these systems are prone to egregious abuse.

4. We Were Not Given a Voice:

The decision to sign this contract was made without public debate or consent. This constitutes a major betrayal of the community’s trust. We, the people of Pensacola, were not invited to weigh in on whether we want to live in a police state where Big Tech and the government collect unlimited data on our everyday lives. We were not even made aware of the extent of this surveillance until after the fact.

The good news is that this is reversible.

Pensacola can and should join the growing list of communities that have chosen privacy over pervasive surveillance. Cities like Santa Cruz, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; South Tucson, Arizona; Lynnwood, Washington; and Ferndale, Michigan, have all terminated or suspended their Flock contracts in response to public pressure and privacy concerns. Even in cases where police praised the technology, city councils listened to residents and determined that the cost to civil liberties was too high.

We urge you to listen to your constituents. People’s privacy should come first. We demand that Mayor Reeves, the Pensacola Police Department, and the City Council act now to sever ties with Flock Safety and remove these devices from our streets. We do not want to live in a surveillance state.