June 26, 2026
By Tim Hundt
VIROQUA, Wis. — Across Wisconsin, communities are increasingly raising questions about the use of automated license plate reading cameras, leading to swift local actions to halt the surveillance technology. Vernon County does use these advanced electronic tools to enhance law enforcement and public safety, but that raises the question about what protections are in place for personal data and how it is being used.
More than 220 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin currently use Flock Safety cameras. The ACLU of Wisconsin also reports that more than 221 law enforcement agencies, along with various private companies and homeowners association, utilize this surveillance system to monitor their communities, but more and more communities are pushing back against the use of these technologies.
Dane County supervisors recently voted 31-1 to defund their Flock Safety cameras, while the city of Verona voted to terminate its contract by the end of 2025. In Sturgeon Bay, the city council refused to renew its Flock agreement, and Oshkosh’s Common Council rescinded a contract renewal less than 24 hours after initially approving it. Appleton has also moved to end its use of Flock cameras, with the city council looking to establish strict standards for any future license plate readers.
Privacy advocates and residents have voiced serious concerns over mass surveillance, data sharing, and the potential misuse of personal information.
Critics argue that Flock’s continuous data collection amounts to dragnet mass surveillance of innocent citizens, as the cameras log every passing vehicle regardless of any connection to a crime. Flock’s automated license plate readers (ALPRs) go beyond simply reading plates; they use AI to create a “vehicle fingerprint”. The cameras capture the make, model, color, and unique visual characteristics of a car—such as bumper stickers, roof racks, and damage—allowing the system to reliably track a vehicle’s movements even if the license plate is missing or changed. This allows the system to build highly precise behavioral profiles of people’s daily travels.
According to the ACLU, Flock’s surveillance network actively collects audio and video data through specific products, such as high-quality video cameras and AI-powered acoustic sensors that triangulate gunshots. Furthermore, a partnership with Amazon’s Ring doorbell cameras allows police to request residential doorbell video through the Flock platform, potentially merging street surveillance with home doorstep surveillance.
The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) claim Flock operates a national network that facilitates widespread data sharing with federal agencies, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), often bypassing local sanctuary laws. Some critics worry this massive data sharing network has also been utilized by out-of-state law enforcement for controversial purposes, such as tracking individuals suspected of seeking abortions.
Who owns the data?
The ACLU reported that in Feb. 2026 Flock updated its terms of service to remove a clause explicitly promising not to sell customer data, while simultaneously asserting a “perpetual” license to use customer data for training its machine-learning algorithms. Even if a city cancels its contract, Flock retains the right to keep and use the community’s “anonymized” travel data indefinitely.
In Vernon County
Police departments nationwide are integrating license plate readers and artificial intelligence into their investigations, and Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson said the technology is an essential tool for serious cases. The Vernon County Sheriff’s Office utilizes both Flock cameras and an AI feature in their Central Square records management system.
“We have a feature in our new system called link analysis, where, if we’re investigating a crime, we’re looking at a certain person, we can click one button in that system and it shows like a spider web of all the people that they’re connected to,” Torgerson said of the AI software at a recent Public Safety Committee meeting.
Regarding the Flock system, according to Sheriff Torgerson, Vernon County currently operates five cameras located in Viola, Genoa, Coon Valley, Hillsboro, and a mobile unit. Torgerson emphasized that the cameras are strictly reserved for major incidents like Amber or Silver Alerts, not minor traffic violations.
“What we really like that for is, let’s say, a missing person, we have a license plate number and there’s an Amber Alert or kidnap and we can immediately enter that plate number into our system, and as soon as that plate passes one of these cameras, we get an immediate alert,” Torgerson said.
He cited a recent success story where the system quickly located a Vernon County woman with dementia who had wandered away in her vehicle. “We got that hit right away,” Torgerson recalled. “We sent a La Crosse deputy, they found her right away”.
To protect personal information, the Sheriff’s Office relies on a digital policy system called to establish best practices and guidelines. Deputies must enter a specific investigative reason when querying the license plate database, and the system logs these searches for auditing. Torgerson said data retention for digital records, such as video footage, is tied to a 120-day standard.
“I do think that you have to have really rock solid agency policies,” Torgerson stated. “So if there is a misuse of the system that that is dealt with harshly”.
We reached out to several county officials to see if there are specific county policies in place that address the collection and storage of personal information with these systems, or in the language of the vendor contracts that provide these services. While we did not get an answer on specific policies in place currently, Vernon County Board of Supervisors Chair Lorn Goede responded to our inquiry and said he was unaware of what Flock cameras were or how they were used until we made our inquiry. Goede said he is open to a discussion about the cameras and other technologies to see if changes in county policies are needed. Goede said the county wants to make sure law enforcement has the tools needed to protect the public, but that needs to be balanced with protecting personal data and making sure guardrails are in place to protect against misuse.
Goede said he would like to see the issue discussed at either the Public Safety Committee, which oversees the Sheriff’s Office, or the General Government Committee that oversees legal affairs.
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