Stop Flock Camera Contract Renewal in the City of Binghamton
The Issue
With the City of Binghamton's contract with Flock Safety expiring by September 8th, 2026 and the contract renewal deadline by August 8th, 2026, we, the residents of the Greater Binghamton area, are calling on the Binghamton City Council for the following:
Contracts with Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions (and its subsidiaries), Axis Communications, and any other ALPR(Automatic License Plate Recognition) or surveillance camera vendors (there are dozens of them) need to be discontinued.
The only acceptable security cameras must meet the following criteria:
1. They are either indoor security cameras at government or private buildings or outdoor ones meant to secure the entrances and exits. No monitoring of streets or sidewalks. No mobile surveillance cameras. Just site security cameras at specific sites to deal with things like trespassing, breaking and entering, or other security breaches. Not mass surveillance of everyone in public. No ALPRs, Automated License Plate Readers, at all, and restricting security cameras for monitoring people on foot to only where it is necessary/appropriate.
2. The data from the security cameras needs to be locally controlled and not have any data sharing with out of state entities, whether private sector or governmental, except to the extent required by law (e.g. a federal office building can still have its cameras share information with the federal government, or information sharing when there is a proper judicial warrant from a judge). But the kind of blanket widespread data sharing of companies like Flock Safety should not be allowed at all. This includes direct video footage, audio footage, both data and metadata, license plate and other text information using OCR vision-to-text AI, facial information from facial recognition AI, text information from audio using speech-to-text AI, and all other AI-enabled services. None of that data should be shared out of state except where explicitly required by law. If any AI is used at ALL, it needs to operate with strict data privacy standards and not be used for training AI models developed by private companies or have data retained on their servers.
3. Contracts with businesses whose business practices routinely flout these guidelines like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, Axis Communications, and others, need to NOT be renewed. Existing contracts with such companies need to be cancelled and their cameras taken down. That is not an exhaustive list, dozens of such companies exist. This includes contracts that involve any sort of data sharing with those companies or ALPR contracts not being allowed. Contracts that are ONLY for site security cameras with NO data sharing, in order to have proper site security cameras that are functional, ARE allowed and would not be covered by this ban.
4. Not just government contracts with these ALPR and other mass surveillance cameras need to be banned, but we need laws rendering private contracts such as the ones Home Depot and Lowe's home improvement stores have with Flock Safety and other vendors to be part of their surveillance networks void where prohibited by law, which would include being prohibited in our area and thus being void here locally.
The reasons for this are many.
These mass surveillance systems not only violate all of our privacy, but in one court case they were even held by a judge to violate the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.
They are a form of warrantless mass surveillance of the entire population without the consent of the governed.
They endanger many vulnerable populations and allow rogue agencies and governments in other states to take actions against people in our community.
They enable cops to stalk their exes, which has happened on numerous occasions.
They put all of us into nationwide searchable databases that thousands of people including bad actors have access to.
They track where we drive and where we are at all times.
They are an unwarranted invasion of privacy, done in the name of public safety, but there is no rigorous independent study ever done to confirm this actually reduces crime at all.
They enable further surveillance of the population by Big Tech companies and the federal government working hand in hand to monitor and control the population in an authoritarian way.
These surveillance systems are fundamentally anti-American and go against everything the Bill of Rights to our Constitution is all about.
We urge the Binghamton City Council to discontinue the City of Binghamton's contract with Flock Safety, and any other ALPR or surveillance camera vendors now.
Our commitment does not end with the City of Binghamton. These systems need to be removed from our area of Greater Binghamton and Broome County, in every jurisdiction, and ultimately we are calling on New York State to eliminate them statewide.
Sign to reclaim agency in our towns and stop the mass surveillance state from becoming a reality.
178
The Issue
With the City of Binghamton's contract with Flock Safety expiring by September 8th, 2026 and the contract renewal deadline by August 8th, 2026, we, the residents of the Greater Binghamton area, are calling on the Binghamton City Council for the following:
Contracts with Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions (and its subsidiaries), Axis Communications, and any other ALPR(Automatic License Plate Recognition) or surveillance camera vendors (there are dozens of them) need to be discontinued.
The only acceptable security cameras must meet the following criteria:
1. They are either indoor security cameras at government or private buildings or outdoor ones meant to secure the entrances and exits. No monitoring of streets or sidewalks. No mobile surveillance cameras. Just site security cameras at specific sites to deal with things like trespassing, breaking and entering, or other security breaches. Not mass surveillance of everyone in public. No ALPRs, Automated License Plate Readers, at all, and restricting security cameras for monitoring people on foot to only where it is necessary/appropriate.
2. The data from the security cameras needs to be locally controlled and not have any data sharing with out of state entities, whether private sector or governmental, except to the extent required by law (e.g. a federal office building can still have its cameras share information with the federal government, or information sharing when there is a proper judicial warrant from a judge). But the kind of blanket widespread data sharing of companies like Flock Safety should not be allowed at all. This includes direct video footage, audio footage, both data and metadata, license plate and other text information using OCR vision-to-text AI, facial information from facial recognition AI, text information from audio using speech-to-text AI, and all other AI-enabled services. None of that data should be shared out of state except where explicitly required by law. If any AI is used at ALL, it needs to operate with strict data privacy standards and not be used for training AI models developed by private companies or have data retained on their servers.
3. Contracts with businesses whose business practices routinely flout these guidelines like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, Axis Communications, and others, need to NOT be renewed. Existing contracts with such companies need to be cancelled and their cameras taken down. That is not an exhaustive list, dozens of such companies exist. This includes contracts that involve any sort of data sharing with those companies or ALPR contracts not being allowed. Contracts that are ONLY for site security cameras with NO data sharing, in order to have proper site security cameras that are functional, ARE allowed and would not be covered by this ban.
4. Not just government contracts with these ALPR and other mass surveillance cameras need to be banned, but we need laws rendering private contracts such as the ones Home Depot and Lowe's home improvement stores have with Flock Safety and other vendors to be part of their surveillance networks void where prohibited by law, which would include being prohibited in our area and thus being void here locally.
The reasons for this are many.
These mass surveillance systems not only violate all of our privacy, but in one court case they were even held by a judge to violate the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure.
They are a form of warrantless mass surveillance of the entire population without the consent of the governed.
They endanger many vulnerable populations and allow rogue agencies and governments in other states to take actions against people in our community.
They enable cops to stalk their exes, which has happened on numerous occasions.
They put all of us into nationwide searchable databases that thousands of people including bad actors have access to.
They track where we drive and where we are at all times.
They are an unwarranted invasion of privacy, done in the name of public safety, but there is no rigorous independent study ever done to confirm this actually reduces crime at all.
They enable further surveillance of the population by Big Tech companies and the federal government working hand in hand to monitor and control the population in an authoritarian way.
These surveillance systems are fundamentally anti-American and go against everything the Bill of Rights to our Constitution is all about.
We urge the Binghamton City Council to discontinue the City of Binghamton's contract with Flock Safety, and any other ALPR or surveillance camera vendors now.
Our commitment does not end with the City of Binghamton. These systems need to be removed from our area of Greater Binghamton and Broome County, in every jurisdiction, and ultimately we are calling on New York State to eliminate them statewide.
Sign to reclaim agency in our towns and stop the mass surveillance state from becoming a reality.
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Petition created on July 8, 2026