ROWAN COUNTY, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Morehead City Council has decided not to renew the city’s existing contracts with Flock Safety, months after license plate reader cameras were destroyed.
The decision does not mean license plate readers are necessarily gone from Morehead for good. City leaders say they are still weighing the technology’s law enforcement benefits against concerns from the community about privacy and surveillance.
“It makes Americans uneasy at the end of the day. It makes me uneasy, uh, for my people here,” City Council Member Lincoln Caudill said.
Council Member Yvonne Baldwin said city leaders need to listen to it's neightbors as they consider the future of the technology.
“I believe strongly that we need to listen to citizens concerned about Flock cameras,” Baldwin said.
The city leases its Flock cameras and is contractually responsible for damage to them. During Monday night’s council meeting, officials said the cost could reach up to $3,000 per camera.
Council members also discussed the possibility of terminating the existing contracts early, which officials said would cost the city roughly $35,000 in remaining contractual obligations, separate from the cost of repairing the destroyed cameras.
Council ultimately chose a different route.
“At this point we have made a resolution not to renew the contract when it does expire,” Caudill said.
Morehead currently has two separate contracts with Flock. One runs through June 2027, while the other runs through February 2028. Officials said both contracts include automatic renewal provisions, making action necessary if the city does not want the existing agreements to continue.
However, council’s decision does not prevent future city leaders from reconsidering Flock, negotiating a new agreement, choosing another license plate reader provider company or moving away from the technology altogether.
One idea discussed Monday night was the creation of a task force that would bring together people with different perspectives to examine the issue.
“We need to have a task force that includes people from both sides,” Council Member Edna Schack said during the meeting.
The task force has not yet been formed. Council members discussed using such a group to gather expert opinions, research and best practices while also giving the public more information about the benefits and concerns surrounding license plate readers.
“You get some expert opinion, you get some research, you get some best practices, and you can inform the public of those, and they can hopefully make a more informed, reasoned decision about whether to continue or whether to discontinue,” Baldwin said.
With new city leadership coming in, Caudill said much of that conversation could ultimately be left to the next administration.
“So a lot of this will be on the next administration to decide what they want to do with the task force,” Caudill said.
For now, the current council has made its decision on Morehead’s existing Flock contracts while leaving open the larger question of whether license plate reader technology will have a future in the city.
Alex Barber is committed to covering stories in your community that matter to you. If you have an idea, reach out to him at alex.barber@wlex.tv
