Residents packed the City Council meeting July 14 for a second time to demand the city end its contract with Flock Safety, the company behind a network of license plate tracking cameras installed throughout Newburgh, as council members remain split over how — or whether — to proceed.

The city first contracted with Flock in 2024 for a one-year term. The contract was renewed in 2025 and is set to run through January 2028.

Residents’ primary concern centers on the possibility that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could use the camera network to track immigrants in the city.

“How can we be a sanctuary to people if we have these invasive cameras recording everybody’s license plates?” resident Cynthia Gilkeson asked the council. “How can we offer anybody protection from ICE or any kind of agency like that if we can’t even keep these cameras off our streets?”

Flock ran pilot programs in 2025 with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. CBP was found to have accessed footage from police departments that had not explicitly authorized the agency to view it. Flock says it has since ended its pilot programs with the federal government, though some federal agencies, including the National Park Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs, still hold active contracts with the company.

The Master Services Agreement between Flock and the city allows the company to release recorded footage to third parties if it determines the footage is necessary for a legal process or to address security concerns. While Newburgh police are barred from using the system to assist ICE with civil immigration cases, ICE or another federal agency could potentially obtain city footage directly from Flock.

Residents also raised concerns about misuse of the technology unrelated to immigration enforcement. Corbin Laedlein, a city resident, told the council that more than a dozen police officers nationally have been arrested for using the technology to stalk former partners, current partners or family members, calling it a public safety issue in its own right. Similar incidents involving officers using Flock cameras to stalk people have been reported in Wisconsin, Illinois and South Carolina.

All members of the City Council say they support ending the Flock contract, but disagree on next steps. Because the current agreement does not include provisions for termination without cause, breaking it early could expose the city to a breach-of-contract claim potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Newburgh Police Department has also resisted ending the contract, arguing the cameras are a valuable tool in solving cases such as car thefts and missing persons investigations.

Council members Giselle Martinez and Omari Shakur want the cameras taken offline as soon as possible without a replacement system.

“We can’t just get another company to replace Flock — that defeats the purpose of what we’re trying to do to protect the privacy of citizens here,” Martinez said.

Council members Ramona Monteverde and Tamika Stewart, along with Mayor Torrance Harvey, favor seeking a replacement system from a different vendor.
“Hopefully we can find something that is safe to use, that won’t share information,” Monteverde said.

Stewart proposed that, in the interim, the council should receive monthly reports detailing who is accessing the camera system and why, along with stricter limits on who is authorized to use it.