Flock Reinstalls Cameras Without City Approval After Unlawful Govt Access (evanstonroundtable.com)

Flock Safety quietly reinstalled all 18 stationary license‑plate readers (plus one mobile “flex” unit) in Evanston after the city ordered the systems deactivated and put Flock on a 30‑day contract termination following revelations that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other out‑of‑state agencies had accessed the cameras in apparent violation of state law. Evanston issued a cease‑and‑desist when it discovered the cameras back on light poles and new poles, some using different “Standard” model housings and city power instead of the original solar‑backed “Falcon” units. The dispute could escalate to litigation; the city says the reinstallation occurred without authorization and has asked Flock to remove the devices. For the AI/ML community this is an enforcement, governance and data‑provenance story: Flock’s public “transparency portal” shows vehicle‑detection counts (initially ~439,542) dropping too slowly after the shutdown to reach zero, implying some cameras logged plates after the city’s termination notice. That mismatch (roughly 10,900 vs the ~15,700 daily drop expected) raises questions about audit logs, access controls, and chain‑of‑custody for LPR datasets that can be used for model training, cross‑agency queries, or immigration enforcement. Key technical implications include the need for stronger attestation and tamper‑evident controls on edge sensors, verifiable logging of reads and access, policy‑enforced data segmentation across jurisdictions, and clearer vendor accountability to prevent unauthorized dataset sharing that can bias models or expose systems to legal risk.