We FOIA'ed Lakewood's Flock Safety Contracts

The Documents

Thanks to the City of Lakewood's public contract list and two Ohio Open Records requests made by Lakewood residents, 5 documents have been gathered that outline a timeline starting in June 2021.

The City of Lakewood is currently 3 years into a 60-month contract for 50 Falcon LPR cameras, costing $125,000 billed annually. The contract, signed in July 2023, reveals that Lakewood PD subscribes to the "Essentials" FlockOS package, and has a 30-day data retention period. 30 days is the Ohio state minimum, and this retention period appears consistent among most of Flock's clients. The Essentials package also includes Flock's nationwide and statewide search, and direct share systems, all of which would enable third-parties such as ICE to snoop on Lakewood residents warrant-free.

The contract is a "sole source" procurement, meaning Flock's competitors could not bid on it. Many have criticized this business practice on Flock's part as it pushes contracts to signing faster without a bidding process, nor adequate deliberation in city councils and committees.

Timeline

• June 2021: BC-21-175

  City of Lakewood awards 1-year contract to Flock Safety for $110k and 40 cameras.

• February 2023: BC-23-048, FLOCK GROUP INC. ADDITIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT

  City of Lakewood renews and expands previous contract to include 10 extra cameras, at $128k.

• July 2023: FLOCK SAFETY + OH - Lakewood PD

  City of Lakewood amends prior contract in favor of a 60-month, $125k/yr agreement. No city document was found for this contract, possibly because the funds had already been allocated in BC-23-048.

• July 2025: BC-25-077

  This documents appears to be a contract renewal, but it is probably just a record of annual payment for the July 2023 contract.

The 8-month gap between the first contract's end and second contract's signing may be explained by a genuine lapse or a grace-period from Flock. Flock has been known to keep cameras up for as long as possible or even reinstall them after being taken down when contracts are terminated. This shows that Flock may continue to utilize, and thus profit from, their cameras even in the absence of consent.

What can we do?

Breaking Flock's contract mid-way may put an unreasonable legal and financial burden on the City of Lakewood and its taxpayers, and the terms and conditions are very thorough in removing options for cities when the public sours on Flock. Despite that, the City of Lakewood can still perform some "damage control," such as revising its data policies to eliminate passive sharing with other jurisdictions. Broader records requests are currently being made to determine more about how Lakewood PD utilizes Flock's products.