Two Malden city councillors want a full accounting of the city's Flock Safety camera program -- every contract, exhibit, amendment, renewal, purchase order, policy, and related agreement the city has on file.
At-Large Councillor Karen Colón Hayes and Ward 4 Councillor Ryan O'Malley filed agenda item #369-26 for deliberation at the City Council's September 8 meeting, calling on the City Solicitor, Police Chief, Malden Police Community Advisory Council, Controller's Office, "and all other relevant City departments and officials" to produce a complete review of the program.
The timing isn't incidental. The same week the item was filed, a state records officer ordered Malden police to explain a day of camera footage that a public-records requestor says disappeared.
What the Resolution Asks For
File #369-26 was created September 1 and lands on the Council's agenda as a resolution -- a formal expression of the Council's sense that the review should happen, not a binding order. Its operative language asks for a review of the Flock Safety program "as presented by" city officials, covering "all contracts, exhibits, amendments, renewals, purchase orders, policies, and related agreements."
A Records Fight in the Background
On July 14, transparency group OpenCommonwealth asked Malden police for one day of Flock camera exports -- every image and its metadata, citywide, for June 23. The department didn't substantively respond for two weeks, then asked for up to 25 business days to review the request. On August 13, it changed course: the records being sought, it said, didn't exist at all.
OpenCommonwealth appealed to the state's Public Records Division, arguing that Flock's own systems hold camera data for 30 days -- meaning the requested footage was still sitting on Flock's servers, downloadable, for more than a week after the request was filed. On August 31, Supervisor of Records Manza Arthur agreed there was a problem, ordering the department to clarify within ten business days whether the footage had existed and was "permissibly destroyed," or never existed to begin with.
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View the determination →Supervisor of Records determination, SPR26/3197August 31, 2026 -- orders Malden PD to clarify the status of the requested Flock footage within 10 business days.
Part of a Broader Retreat
Malden's review doesn't happen in a vacuum. On August 31, Florida's Department of Transportation ordered an end to license-plate reader use -- including Flock's -- on the state's highways, citing reports of misuse and surveillance overreach, and gave the state 30 days to remove the cameras; Governor Ron DeSantis had called the technology "out of control" days earlier. Texas ordered its state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras the same week, after Governor Greg Abbott's office pointed to abuses elsewhere, including the indictment of a Lufkin police officer on 100 felony counts for allegedly searching Flock's database to track people without authorization. Flock's network spans roughly 130,000 license-plate readers nationwide.1
Closer to home, the pullback has accelerated by the week. On September 3, New Bedford's police chief recommended firing two officers after an internal investigation found they had misused the department's Flock cameras to track romantic partners, referring both cases to the Bristol County District Attorney's office.2 Two days earlier, Dartmouth's police chief told the town's Select Board that the department won't renew its five-camera Flock contract when it expires later this month, citing privacy concerns and cost; Acushnet's Board of Selectmen voted to suspend its own single camera pending a review of whether to cancel the contract outright.3 The ACLU of Massachusetts, which has tracked the trend since October 2025, now counts more than 25 Massachusetts municipalities that have canceled, declined to renew, or suspended their Flock programs.4
What's Next
The Council takes up item #369-26 at its regular meeting on Tuesday, September 8, at 7:00 PM in City Council Chambers at Malden City Hall. The meeting is also open to remote viewing via Teams, per the published agenda.
It's the latest step in a story The Civic Broadside has been following for months.
