By: Tyler Fisher, Volunteer Editing Publisher of the Echo
On September 16, the Edgewater City Council again deliberated about the use of Automatic License Plate Reading technology in the city. The city’s contract with a vendor named Flock has drawn ire from community leaders and statewide immigration and civil liberties advocates after it became clear Flock data was being shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they continue raids across the state and country.
CATCH UP QUICK: The Edgewater Echo covered this issue last month, and resident Larry Welshon opined the council should cancel the contract. The city signed a five-year contract in 2023 with Flock, a provider of controversial Automatic License Plate Reading (ALPR).
The city pays $15,000 per year for technology that scans license plates in Edgewater to aid law enforcement in solving crimes and ensuring public safety. Flock has earned ire in Colorado and nationally, in part because other jurisdictions using the platform have intentionally and unintentionally shared data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The debate in Edgewater about whether to continue the contract has unfolded to include various threads. One question is whether the technology is more helpful to the Edgewater Police Department and other surrounding law enforcement agencies the city partners with or if it is more helpful to ICE. Stolen vehicles have been common in the past, and city council members have heard from residents that they are a concern. In August, Police Chief McNitt provided several examples of how the city has used ALPR data to solve. According to a poll of Edgewater voters conducted earlier this year, public safety is the top issue on the minds of Edgewater residents.
Survey conducted by Probolsky Research from June 23 – July 7, 2025.
N = 325; MOE = +/- 5.6%
But the practical question of who the data is more useful to has sat alongside concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and whether any risk ICE may use any data nefariously is worth it; ICE has arrested law abiding U.S. citizens amid efforts to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
RECOMMENDATIONS CONSIDERED: After a series of votes on the city’s sustainability plan, contracts related to waste removal, and emergency ordinances related to excavation, Council member Lilly Steier asked the city attorney if there were any ways the city could modify the current contract it has with Flock, the provider of the controversial Automatic License Plate Reading (ALPR). During the nearly one hour conversation on the topic, city council members, the police chief, city attorney, and city manager all discussed potential ways to address the issue.
The potential options discussed by the council included:
1. Cancelling the contract with Flock.
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- The city would be unlikely to recoup future payments owed to Flock, according to the city attorney who said the city “legally obligated itself to the vendor” when it signed the contract. Though, she said the council’s budgeting process could create a window to not authorize a future payment
2. Using a different provider of license plate reading technology
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- The city manager acknowledged though that most other governments use Flock, increasing its utility to Edgewater’s police department. He said. “One of the reasons we went to Flock in the first place is everyone has it, and without everyone having it, it’s less useful.”
- The city manager acknowledged though that most other governments use Flock, increasing its utility to Edgewater’s police department. He said. “One of the reasons we went to Flock in the first place is everyone has it, and without everyone having it, it’s less useful.”
3. Turning off the cameras until a more long term solution can be found.
4. Researching the city’s contract with Flock to see if there was a breach of contract.
5. Amending future city contracts to include clauses that require vendors to certify they know about a state law that prohibits the use of Personal Identification Information (PII).
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- A state law prohibits the use of PII being shared for “prohibited purposes, which of course, includes civil immigration enforcement.
- The city’s existing contract with Flock, and other vendors, does not include a clause to this effect. Establishing a publicly available log of when and with whom the city of Edgewater has shared its Flock data with. Such a clause in a contract like this one in the future, may give the city cause to break the contract for breaching terms.
6. Making it transparent with which jurisdictions Edgewater has shared Flock’s ALPR data with in the past.
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- While residents can access information on which jurisdictions Edgewater’s ALPR data is currently being shared with, there is no publicly available log of who it has been shared with in the past.
7. Asking Flock to clarify how they are using AI in their product.
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- Council member Joie Iten noted, “if they’re using AI to track people’s movements to determine whether AI thinks they’re criminal or not, makes me a little concerned, but I don’t really think AI is that advanced at this point either.”
8. Hosting a community conversation about the use of Flock, specifically, and ALPR technology more broadly.
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- Council member Joel Newton suggested the conversation. His remarks towards the end of the meeting reflect the tensions at hand.
“I don’t trust the federal government utilizing this data, and I trust our law enforcement officers who we’ve already heard reports of individuals within municipalities sharing information from Flock with Border Patrol…I think we’re in a situation where we need to think about how we protect our community members with that Flock data. It can be utilized to track people’s movement on a daily basis, going from home to wherever they go to work, and individuals could use that data to apprehend somebody. Now, it can also be used for stolen vehicles and those types of things that we expect of our law enforcement, but that data also can be used in ways that I personally would think are negative. So I also think it’s important to have a community conversation about this.”
– Council Member Joel Newton
The city council did not take any formal action on the matter, though pledged to continue to monitor the situations.
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*This solution was added to this article on October 21. It was an erroneous omission, as the council had discussed this solution on September 26.
Tyler Fisher is the Publishing Editor of the Edgewater Echo. He is volunteering his time to educate Edgewater residents about what is happening in their community, and he welcomes the help of other community members interested in writing for the Echo and helping to promote it.
Tyler is also the Founder and Principal of Trailmark Strategies — a boutique strategy consulting firm that works with philanthropists, nonprofits, and mission-driven companies. Tyler primarily consults on mental health, democracy, and housing projects. Tyler is also a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Senior Advisor at Dalberg, and writer of the “Bipolar and Bipartisan” Substack.
Tyler has lived in Edgewater since 2022. He has volunteered as a basketball and volleyball coach at the civic center and previously served on the citizens’ advisory committee for the hiring of the city’s police chief. He is currently a member of the Edgewater Charter Review Task Force.
The use of this FLOCK technology is a great way to keep crime down. If we’ve paid for it then we should continue through the contract and not just throw money away because we didn’t read the fine print.