{
  "id": 6281428,
  "title": "California city canceled Flock, removed its cameras, then found the company had put some of them back",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/08/california-city-canceled-flock-removed-its-cameras-then-found-the",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-08T13:49:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechSpot",
    "slug": "techspot",
    "url": "https://www.techspot.com/news/113769-california-city-canceled-flock-removed-cameras-found-company.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In Grass Valley, California, the police department recently ended its contract with Flock and removed all of the company's license plate cameras. However, a month later, Flock installed at least two of the cameras back into the city without permission. The police department confirmed that some of the cameras were no longer showing connection because they had been taken down, but were later serviced and replaced. Flock attributed the reinstallation to an automated system that thought there was a fault in the cameras, but also blamed the city for removing them too quickly. The police department stated that Flock had followed the maintenance provisions of its contract, despite receiving a letter canceling the contract on August 11. The company maintains that it follows the removal of cameras as part of the cancelation process, but the city had taken them down before the process was complete, causing the system to generate replacement work orders. This incident comes as Flock faces criticism over the scope of its surveillance network, data sharing with other agencies, cost, and misuse by police officers.",
  "summary": "Grass Valley, California, is one of the many cities that have dropped Flock license plate cameras. It comes as the company faces criticism over the extent of its devices' surveillance network, the sharing of data with other agencies, the cost, and, most controversially, their misuse by police officers. Read Entire Article",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "BBC World",
        "title": "Flock says its cameras make US safer - so why are they being sabotaged?",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/flock-says-its-cameras-make-us-safer-so-why-are-they-being-sabotaged",
        "published": "2026-09-05T01:16:27.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Guardian Technology",
        "title": "Cut the cameras: Flock surveillance cameras spur rare bipartisan backlash",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/cut-the-cameras-flock-surveillance-cameras-spur-rare-bipartisan",
        "published": "2026-09-05T14:00:37.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}