Wichita's 191 Flock surveillance cameras could stay active for at least six more months if the City Council approves a contract extension, according to KWCH.
The Wichita Police Department briefed council members Tuesday, Oct. 27, on how the department uses the automated license plate readers. The cameras are spread across the city: 68 on the east side, 47 on the south side, 40 on the north side and 36 on the west side. Police also have the technology mounted on cruisers, though the department did not say how many, KWCH reported.
The city's original Flock contract began in April 2021, according to KNSS. Wisevoter reported the council vote is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3. The cost of the proposed extension has not been disclosed.
The Flock Safety transparency portal for the Wichita Police Department lists 854,371 unique plate reads over the most recent 30-day period, as of October. 28, 2026. Officers conducted 2,151 searches, and the system logged 39,862 hotlist hits in that window. Data is retained for 30 days and restricted to law enforcement use, according to the portal. The system does not use facial recognition.
The system detects license plates and vehicles only. It does not detect faces, people, gender or race, the portal states. Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment and personal use.
Wichita shares its Flock data with police departments in Andover, Derby, Haysville and Maize, along with the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, among other agencies.
The vote comes as the camera program faces legal and public pushback. Mason Grimmett, a Wichita machinist represented by the Kansas Justice Institute, filed a lawsuit in Sedgwick County District Court calling the program a "warrantless surveillance dragnet," the Wichita Eagle reported. Grimmett's suit asks a judge to declare the program unconstitutional and order the city to purge its historical records. He is not seeking money. The current status of the case has not been confirmed from court records.
Past misuse has fueled the debate. In 2022, a Kechi police lieutenant was arrested for using Wichita's Flock network to track his estranged wife, the Eagle reported. Former Sedgwick Police Chief Lee Nygaard lost his certification in 2024 after using the readers 228 times in 2023 to track his former girlfriend’s and her boyfriend’s vehicles.
Flock cameras have also been vandalized across the metro. In September, someone sawed down a camera near Zoo Boulevard and Central in west Wichita, the Eagle reported. Three more were cut down Sept. 27 in south Wichita, according to the Eagle. Derby lost more than half its cameras to vandalism, the Eagle reported.
Flock Safety announced policy changes on Aug. 13 that take effect Jan. 1, 2027, according to the Sunflower. The company's default data retention period will drop to seven days. Flock will also require all law enforcement customers to adopt an audit system that flags abnormal activity and automatically suspends access.
The council's Nov. 3 vote is the next scheduled opportunity for residents to weigh in on the program's future.
