Flock has admitted it reinstalled its surveillance cameras in Grass Valley, California, after the city’s police force canceled its contract and took the devices down, in the latest headline the embattled company would rather avoid. Grass Valley Police Department (GVPD) publicly ended its contract with Flock and removed all cameras from the city, but less than a month later the company reinstalled at least two of them without permission, according to Fox40. “Some of the cameras which were no longer showing connection, because we took them down, have been serviced and replaced,” GVPD said. “We’ve learned and dealt with at least two.” The department noted that Flock Safety was following the maintenance provisions of its contract despite receiving a letter canceling that contract on August 11, and said GVPD continually takes down any reinstalled cameras while monitoring other locations for the same issue.

Flock offered its own explanation to Fox40, saying Grass Valley removed the cameras itself shortly after announcing its decision to terminate the contract, before the cancellation and equipment-removal process had been completed within Flock’s internal systems. According to the company, it normally handles camera removal as part of its own cancellation process, but because the city took the cameras down before that process was finished, Flock’s automated system assumed an equipment failure had occurred. That triggered replacement work orders, which resulted in crews being dispatched to reinstall what the system mistakenly flagged as malfunctioning hardware.

This incident lands amid a broader wave of criticism facing Flock over the extent of its surveillance network, its sharing of data with other agencies, its cost, and, most controversially, cases of misuse by police officers. The backlash has grown intense enough that police departments have asked rival company Axon to redesign its own cameras so the public stops mistaking them for Flock’s devices. That request followed four former Savannah police employees being arrested over alleged misuse of the Flock system, while separately, Florida police used a fake decoy camera to catch a vandal and charged him with three felonies for destroying it. With cities dropping Flock at a record pace, the Grass Valley episode underscores the reputational risk facing a company whose automated systems apparently can’t reliably distinguish between a broken camera and one a city has deliberately and legally removed.

OUTRAGE: Flock Safety Admits The Company Reinstalled Cameras In Grass Valley, California Without Permission, Weeks After The City’s Police Force Canceled Its Surveillance Contract, Blaming The City For Removing Devices “Too Quickly” Before Cancellation Process Was Fully Processed 🤯💥