Boston Police Department

The City of Boston's 2025 Annual Surveillance Reports say the Boston Police Department ran a Flock Safety licence plate reader trial with about 45 cameras from 1 April to 4 September 2025, under Special Order 25-16, and that the data was searchable by licence plate and by vehicle description. The report says that within three days of the start of the pilot the department became aware that other law enforcement agencies could access plate and vehicle information from its cameras through a nationwide lookup feature 'enabled by the vendor in error', and that the department ensured 'the function was immediately disabled'. It records 15 hot list requests (13 from the department and two from Massachusetts State Police), of which 12 were approved and 3 denied, and says the department's Audit and Review Unit audited the trial. The report says the department's previously reported 3M system was not operable in 2025. GovTech, republishing MassLive on 18 September 2026, quotes Mayor Michelle Wu saying the city had 'abandoned' Flock, and a joint statement from the police and the mayor's office that the city 'ended all use of Flock due to the contract violation'. The department's later short-term trial of a Motorola system is covered in a separate record.