Flock status: Six locally purchased Flock LPR cameras; active relationship documented through an August 2026 year-two invoice
Campaign status: Contract, retention and accountability follow-up
Last verified: September 20, 2026
What the records establish
A helpful community member on Nextdoor shared four Beverly Hills FOIA response PDFs with us. We independently reviewed all 606 pages and checked the controlling records rather than treating every old quote or draft as current.
The strongest current findings are:
- Village Council approved the purchase 7–0 on May 20, 2025;
- the executed June 4, 2025 order covers six Flock LPR cameras;
- the order states a 60-month initial term, 24-month renewal term and automatic renewal unless either party gives at least 30 days’ notice before the current term ends;
- year one was $21,900, later annual recurring cost is $18,000, and the stated five-year contract total is $93,900;
- the order states a 90-day retention period;
- a July 2026 platform snapshot showed sharing with 141 Michigan organizations, the Michigan statewide network enabled, and the nationwide network disabled; and
- the final General Order L-49 took effect on August 25, 2026.
Official May 20, 2025 council packet →
Official May 20, 2025 meeting minutes →
The six documented camera locations
The records identify one camera at each of these intersections:
- Greenfield Road and 13 Mile Road;
- Southfield Road and 13 Mile Road;
- Evergreen Road and Embassy Road;
- Lahser Road and Hillview Lane;
- 13 Mile Road and Old Stage Road; and
- Lahser Road and 14 Mile Road.
These are document-based locations. Anyone adding or updating the shared DeFlock map should still follow its current lawful, in-person verification rules.
Camera Mapping & Verification →
The signed order is a five-year subscription—not a one-year trial
The signed order lists six Flock LPRs, FlockOS Essentials and six standard implementation services. It was signed by the Village’s then-interim public-safety director and Flock’s general counsel on June 4, 2025.
The billing trail matches the order:
- a June 9, 2025 invoice billed $21,900 for year one; and
- an August 7, 2026 invoice billed $18,000 for “Year 2 of 60 Month Term, 2026–2027.”
An earlier 24-month proposal also appears in the response. It is not the controlling document. The later signed 60-month order is.
The earlier procurement correspondence is useful context too. A 2024 internal email said a Flock representative was willing to speak at a council meeting but wanted to brief local leadership beforehand so they were “on the same page.” That establishes vendor message preparation—not deception. It is a reason for residents and officials to compare any sales presentation with the complete contract, independent evidence and the questions the presentation does not answer.
The exact contract-end and nonrenewal dates are still not safe to calculate from the signature date. The order says the hardware term begins at first installation and validation, and the records reviewed do not conclusively establish that controlling start date.
Priority record: obtain the first-installation-and-validation record, then place the actual term end and 30-day nonrenewal deadline on the public calendar.
What Beverly Hills bought access to
The order’s product schedule includes more than a list of six poles. It describes:
- time-and-location searches;
- specific plate-location history;
- vehicle-characteristic searching by type, make, color, plate state, missing or covered plate, bumper stickers, decals and roof racks;
- custom hot lists and real-time NCIC alerts;
- community and law-enforcement network access;
- Michigan statewide plate lookup; and
- nationwide plate lookup as a contracted platform feature.
That list establishes purchased entitlement, not that every feature was enabled or used.
The July 31, 2026 sharing snapshot supplies an important configuration check: Beverly Hills was sharing with 141 in-state organizations, its Michigan statewide network was enabled, and its nationwide network was disabled at that time.
That is exactly why current configuration records matter. A contract can make a capability available while an administrator setting limits it today. Settings can later change without replacing the roadside cameras.
Understand access, sharing and retention →
The final policy arrived after the purchase
When council approved the purchase in May 2025, the minutes say council wanted a Flock-camera policy implemented. Records include draft directives, while the final General Order L-49 is dated August 25, 2026.
The final policy contains meaningful safeguards:
- individual, auditable user credentials;
- training before access;
- an incident number and reason for every detection-browsing inquiry;
- verification of an alert in LEIN and visual confirmation before enforcement action;
- prohibitions on personal use, harassment, intimidation and infringement of First Amendment rights;
- twice-yearly random audits covering 5% of the preceding six months’ searches each time; and
- quarterly review of searches flagged by Flock as “Needing Review.”
It also permits broad official use. The policy says reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using ALPR and lists purposes including active warrants, homeland security, electronic surveillance, suspect interdiction and stolen-property recovery.
A policy can reduce risk. It does not prove every earlier or later search complied, and a sample audit does not review every ordinary search.
The retention documents conflict
This is the clearest issue for immediate public clarification:
- the signed June 2025 order says 90 days; while
- the August 2026 policy says Flock will purge hosted data after 30 days.
Both cannot describe the same current configured routine-retention period without some additional explanation, amendment or settings record.
The policy separately allows downloaded records to remain on a department server for as long as one year and longer when preserved for evidence, discovery or another lawful purpose. Routine vendor retention, local downloads and preserved evidence therefore must be asked about separately.
One useful action: ask Beverly Hills to publish the current retention-setting record and explain in writing whether the operative platform setting is 30 or 90 days.
The public-record response shows why complete files matter
The response contains early proposals, later signed documents, invoices, drafts, final policy and current configuration snapshots. Reading only one page could produce the wrong answer.
It also contains personal contact details, operational links and other information that should not be republished casually. We are summarizing the campaign-relevant facts without uploading the raw response set. Residents seeking the underlying public records can request the same nonexempt government records directly and ask the Village for appropriately redacted electronic copies.
Find & Request Public Records →
What residents should ask for next
- the record establishing the first successful installation and validation date;
- the current Flock retention-setting screenshot or configuration export;
- any amendment changing the order’s 90-day retention term;
- the full current organization-sharing list and every change since July 31, 2026;
- current user-role and administrator-permission records, with personal data minimized;
- the June and December biannual audit memoranda and quarterly “Needing Review” audit records required by policy;
- aggregate counts of searches, alerts, exports and preserved evidence; and
- the written authority and process for giving timely nonrenewal notice.
Our position
Beverly Hills has adopted several safeguards, and the July snapshot showed nationwide sharing disabled. Those are facts worth reporting accurately.
They do not change the underlying policy question: should ordinary travel create a searchable location record shared across a 141-organization in-state network?
One useful action: ask Village Council to resolve the retention conflict now and begin a public nonrenewal review well before the five-year term’s 30-day notice deadline.