Bloomington ends Flock contract, says city will seek alternatives after review

Written from press release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — April 15, 2026

The City of Bloomington has ended its relationship with Flock Safety, with Mayor Kerry Thomson announcing Thursday that the city’s contract for the company’s license plate reader services expired March 5 and was not renewed after what officials described as a months-long evaluation.

According to the city, Bloomington Police Chief Michael Diekhoff submitted a report on the city’s use of Flock on April 15, followed by a memo from Thomson to the Bloomington Common Council. Both are expected to be presented at the council’s April 22 meeting.

City officials said the evaluation began before the Common Council passed a March 5 resolution calling for additional oversight of the city’s Flock cameras and requesting a report from Bloomington police about access to Flock data. The review included input from police leadership and investigative teams, the city’s legal staff, Flock representatives and community partners, and examined operational use, legal issues and documented case applications.

As Bloomington moves away from Flock, the city said it will consider other technologies and providers that officials believe may better balance public safety with privacy protections, transparency, accountability and public trust. During the transition, access to Flock data will be limited to Bloomington Police Department personnel, and city officials said there will be no outside data sharing.

The city’s Flock-related equipment includes 11 permanently mounted license plate reader cameras, four permanently mounted video cameras, and four mobile trailer systems equipped for license plate reading, video recording and gunshot detection. Officials noted that other local jurisdictions, including Indiana University and Monroe County, operate similar systems under their own authority and policies.

The city said license plate reader cameras capture an image of the rear of a vehicle and its license plate as it travels on a public road. Under Bloomington police policy, officials said the system does not use facial recognition, does not collect or reveal vehicle registration information such as a driver’s name or address, and does not create profiles based on personal traits or demographic information. Search results, according to the city, show a still image and timestamp tied to a vehicle observation rather than a personal identity profile.

Within the police department, the city said access is restricted to sworn officers and data analysts. Users are required to complete training, use individually assigned log-ins, connect searches to an active event number and identify a valid reason for each search. Search activity is logged and subject to audit every 60 days, and the department maintains a 30-day retention period for Flock data unless material has been entered as evidence in a criminal case.

Officials also said Bloomington police are not participating in Flock’s national network, and that data collected by Bloomington cameras had only been shared with other Indiana law enforcement agencies as allowed by department policy. Under Thomson’s direction, the city said that sharing will stop, Bloomington cameras will no longer be visible to other agencies on the network, and outside agencies will no longer be able to query Bloomington camera data.

The city said its review included examples of cases in which the system had been used in investigations, including the safe recovery of a kidnapping victim, identification of a suspect in a homicide investigation near the county line, and identification of a suspect who later confessed in a roadside sexual assault case. Officials also said vehicle data had helped support homicide investigations within Bloomington and aided another Indiana agency in locating evidence connected to a murder investigation.

“We take civil liberties seriously. We take public safety seriously. Those are shared obligations of good government,” Thomson said in a statement. “This review made clear that if this tool is used, it must be used under narrow parameters, strong accountability, and clear public safeguards. We are continuing to evaluate whether other options may better serve the community.”

Thomson added that “due diligence takes time” and said the city does not make decisions like this “to satisfy a moment,” but instead reviews “the full picture” and weighs the impacts “meticulously.”

Diekhoff said the city’s goal is to support police work with tools that are effective, carefully governed and understood by the public, while avoiding unnecessary public safety gaps during the transition away from Flock. Additional information about the system’s use is expected to be presented to the Common Council at its April 22 meeting.

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