Boonsboro to Discontinue Flock Contract in September, but There’s a Catch

Despite Boonsboro’s social media post about License Plate Readers (LPRs) singing the praises of their Flock Safety cameras “making a difference”, behind the scenes the department has experienced significant issues with their Flock cameras, including problems with failure to capture all traffic or license plates. On July 13, 2026 the town decided to discontinue their agreement with Flock. However, privacy advocates shouldn’t celebrate just yet, as the Flock cameras are planned to be replaced with cameras from Axon, a competitor offering similar systems.

If you missed this announcement, you’re not alone, because just like the Flock contract, the Axon contract wasn’t on the agenda, even though apparently Chief Rizer had in fact emailed the council ahead of time that he has made the decision to replace Flock with Axon. So, just like with the Flock contract, this new contract with Axon has been omitted from council agendas so that residents have no advance notice of the topic being discussed.

Subsequently, Chief Rizer emailed Flock the following day informing them that they won’t be renewing their contract. The subsequent email thread is included below. In it, Flock requests additional information as to why the Town is not renewing their contract.

Based on the email from Chief Rizer, Boonsboro decided not to renew their contract with Flock Safety due to three main factors. First, they experienced poor customer service and unacceptable support delays, such as waiting nearly a month for a response to a damaged camera request before having to repair it themselves. Second, the system suffered from incomplete License Plate Recognition (LPR), consistently failing to capture all passing traffic and license tags. Finally, the department sought better cost efficiency and ownership, preferring to invest in more affordable alternatives that allow them to own the hardware outright and integrate it into their broader policing needs.

Unlike Flock, Axon does not operate a centralized, searchable national network for automatic data or license plate sharing. Its platform, Axon Evidence, is designed to keep data within localized agency ecosystems. So while Axon will still provide searchable records of all captured vehicles, there will be restrictions on data sharing and national searches. A small win for privacy advocates.

Emails between Boonsboro and Flock are below, as well as the July 13, 2026 council meeting agenda, which included no mention of Flock or Axon.

Article by Ken Buckler based upon information from Boonsboro Police Department.

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