The Binghamton City Council passed a resolution urging Mayor Jared Kraham to terminate the city’s existing contracts with Flock Safety on Aug. 6.
The legislation comes after widespread concern regarding the practices of Flock Safety, the security company that provides the Binghamton area with cameras and automated license plate readers. In addition to advocating for an end to Binghamton’s current contract with the company, the resolution asks the city not to enter new agreements until local policies are put into place and expresses support for implementing statewide privacy standards.
“Over 80 municipalities across 28 states have terminated their automatic license plate reader contracts with Flock Safety in just the last 5 years,” said City Council Majority Leader Rebecca Rathmell. “The reasons range from privacy infringement and warrantless surveillance concerns to unauthorized access by ICE and patterns of blatant discrimination. These should give us all pause.”
According to Flock Safety’s website, the company “builds technology that helps communities deter crime, respond to emergencies, and investigate safety incidents.” These technologies include Automated License Plate Readers, which are used in the city of Binghamton.
“In recent years, ALPRs in Binghamton have been a vital part of hundreds of police investigations, helping solve and lead to arrests in homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, hit and runs and other serious crimes,” said Kraham.
Flock Safety has come under fire nationwide over concerns that federal agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have been searching its data to target undocumented immigrants.
According to DeFlock, an open-source project that maps the presence of license plate readers, ALPRs such as the ones sold by Flock “continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion.”
These concerns surrounding Flock were discussed during a public information session held by the City Council in July. The company, a policing policy researcher and Binghamton Police Department leadership spoke about concerns regarding data sharing and the location of cameras throughout Binghamton.
“BPD policy requires officers to use the technology responsibly and in a manner that aligns with best practices — notably on data storage timelines,” said Kraham. “As I’ve said many times, the Department does not share data with ICE and will not as long as I’m Mayor.”
Following the discussion, the Council passed the resolution. However, the legislation states that “under the current terms of the City’s contracts with Flock Safety and the City’s existing administrative structure, the authority to terminate those contracts rests with the Mayor.”
Protests against the security company have also been prevalent at Binghamton University. In May, more than 100 students and community members gathered on campus to demand that the University end its contract with Flock Safety.
“After writing last year’s resolution and participating in the YDSA-led rally against Flock Safety last semester, I graduated from the university,” Rob Olbon ‘26, the author of last semester’s “Resolution To Raise Awareness about Flock Safety on Our Campus,” wrote in a statement to Pipe Dream. “Binghamton University was hoping that the movement to end collaboration with ICE would also graduate over the summer and move on. Unfortunately for them, Binghamton students and their neighbors in the city continue to stand in solidarity with the immigrant community and against Flock Safety’s spyware.”
“A city council under a Republican mayor has managed to do better than this university on Flock!” he continued. “This vote proves that the fight is still continuing. It’s well past time for this university to listen to the will of its students and stop collaborating with ICE by maintaining this contract. They can’t cover their ears much longer.”