Flock Cameras in Troy, Michigan

The short version

An August 18, 2025 Troy City Council agenda item recommended waiving the bid process and approving a five-year contract with Flock Group, Inc. for the Troy Police Department's Flock Safety ALPR camera system.

The city packet says Troy first approved Flock Safety ALPRs on March 13, 2023 under Resolution #2023-03-040, with the system implemented in July 2023. The 2025 order form lists 25 Flock Safety LPR cameras, formerly Falcon, plus 2 Flock Safety LPR Flex cameras, formerly Falcon Flex.

The proposed contract total was $347,500, or $69,500 annually for five years, with a contract term from August 29, 2025 through August 28, 2030.

What Troy says the system has done

The city agenda item says Flock cameras have played a critical role in identifying stolen vehicles and resolving criminal investigations since implementation in July 2023.

The packet attributes 60 traffic stops involving vehicles connected to felony-related activity, 29 recovered stolen vehicles, 31 arrests, and multiple suspect-vehicle identifications to Flock ALPR notifications.

Those numbers are useful, but they are not the whole oversight question. A city should also publish search counts, alert outcomes, audit-log reviews, outside-agency access, and cases where a hit did not lead to enforcement.

The contract economics

Troy's staff memo says Flock introduced a new ALPR pricing model on April 1, 2023, but Troy had completed an earlier agreement before that date and secured a lower yearly cost for the original contract period.

For the 2025 renewal, staff wrote that contracting directly with Flock Group would save an estimated $29,000 annually compared with buying through the MiDEAL state bid contract, or $145,000 across the five-year term.

The order form shows an annual recurring subtotal of $69,500, discounts totaling $80,000, estimated tax of $0, and a $347,500 contract total. The city said funds were budgeted in the Police Department's Contractual Services General account.

The features Troy is buying

The order form includes Flock Safety Platform Essentials, 25 fixed Flock Safety LPR cameras, 2 portable Flock Safety LPR Flex cameras, and Flock Safety Advanced Search.

The product description says Advanced Search includes Convoy Analysis, Multi Geo Search, and Visual Search. The same packet describes Vehicle Fingerprint technology as capturing vehicle make, color, type, license plate state, missing or covered plates, paper plates, and more than 20 vehicle details such as roof racks and bumper stickers.

The FlockOS feature list also includes community network access, state network license-plate lookup, nationwide network license-plate lookup, law enforcement network access, license plate location-history lookup, vehicle fingerprint search, audit and plate-read reporting, NCIC and NCMEC alerts, and custom hot lists.

The retention and renewal terms

The Troy order form lists a 30-day retention period. It also says the agreement automatically renews for successive renewal terms unless either party gives notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before the end of the then-current term.

For residents, those two details matter. Thirty-day retention defines how long routine plate reads remain searchable, while automatic-renewal language can make a surveillance contract continue unless officials calendar the review and force a public decision.

Any future Troy review should ask whether searches require a case number or written purpose, who can approve outside-agency access, whether audit logs are reviewed, and whether aggregate use data is published.

Why Troy is still worth watching

Troy's public record is quieter than cities where Flock contracts triggered rallies or lawsuits. That does not make it less important. Quiet renewals can lock in years of data collection before residents understand the full feature set.

The regional context is shifting. Oakland County Times reported in November 2025 that nearby Ferndale ended its use of Flock license plate reading cameras after community feedback, while also noting that Flock cameras were used by several Michigan agencies including Troy.

That contrast is the reason Troy's contract deserves a public checklist. The useful question is not whether ALPR cameras can help solve some cases. It is whether the city has published enough policy, audit, sharing, retention, and outcome data for residents to judge the tradeoff.

Sources used

City of Troy, Michigan, City Council agenda item, Bid Waiver: Flock Safety ALPR Camera System, Troy Police Department, August 18, 2025: https://apps.troymi.gov/Meetings/Meetings/DownloadPDF/6883733

City of Troy, Michigan, Traffic Safety Unit page: https://troymi.gov/departments/police/traffic_safety_unit.php

City of Troy, Michigan, Traffic Safety Unit FAQ: https://troymi.gov/departments/police/faq_traffic_safety_unit.php

Flock Safety, Customer Terms and Conditions, last updated February 16, 2026: https://www.flocksafety.com/legal/terms-and-conditions

Oakland County Times, Ferndale Police End Use of Flock License Plate Reading Cameras, November 13, 2025: https://oaklandcounty115.com/2025/11/13/ferndale-police-end-use-of-flock-license-plate-reading-cameras/