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A handful of cities across the U.S. have ditched Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras and immediately replaced them with equivalent systems from law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to local media reports and government documents from around the country. Axon, for example, advertises AI-powered cameras that attach to an existing streetlamp and are designed to completely blend in with their surroundings, and also collects license plate data with cameras installed inside police officers’ patrol vehicles.

The switch to Axon, which is not yet widespread but appears to be increasing as people oppose Flock, signals what might come next for the nationwide conversation around ALPR cameras: instead of doing away with the cameras entirely — which 404 Media has linked to ICE, the tracking of a woman who self-administered an abortion, and rampant abuse by cops stalking their exes — some cities may enter contracts with another company which has faced less scrutiny and backlash.

In February, Syracuse lawmakers voted 7-1 to approve a license plate reader contract between the Syracuse Police Department and Axon, Central Current reported. That came after the department used Flock cameras starting in summer 2024, the outlet added.

In March, the Denver, Colorado, city council voted 7-6 to replace the city’s Flock cameras with Axon ones, Denver7 reported. The one-year contract was for 50 ALPR cameras, which is less than half of the total Flock cameras, the outlet added. 

In June, Grand Chute, Wisconsin, voted to get rid of its Flock cameras and transition to Axon, NBC26 reported. The town was already evaluating Axon’s product, but repeated problems with Flock led officials to speed up the transition, the report said.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado dropped Flock for a nearly $22.8 million contract with Axon in July, the Denver Gazette reported. That deal included 100 Axon cameras, doubling the 50 Flock cameras the agency had, and first responder drones, the report said.

In December the City of Ferndale, Michigan, dumped Flock and approved a deal with Axon, according to a local government document. The document explained it was making the switch because “citing privacy concerns and failures by [Flock] to protect images stored on the city's ALPR network from unauthorized agencies [...] Axon does not have a national look-up feature. Axon's ALPR data sharing software only operates on a one-to-one’ basis.” An 88-page report about the switch, however, shows that residents there are concerned about Axon’s ALPR cameras, too.

Longmont, Colorado, voted unanimously in March to approve a new deal with Axon, Times-Call reported. The purchase came after the city let its agreement with Flock lapse.

Knoxville, Texas, added a $9.4 million amendment to its existing contract with Axon, which included replacement ALPR cameras, according to a press release from the mayor. That purchase came after the city’s contract with Flock expired and the city was unable to secure a short-term extension.

As for why cities are switching, local cops performing lookups for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), data sharing, and Flock cameras sometimes being down or unavailable all came up in the media reports and documents.

One key feature of Flock is its national lookup tool. This lets, say, a police officer in Texas search ALPR cameras not just in their own neighborhood, or even state, but nationwide. That has included states which have explicit bans on sharing ALPR data out of state, like Illinois, or sanctuary states like California. After 404 Media revealed ICE was indirectly tapping into Flock camera data, Flock removed various states from the national lookup tool and made other changes to its product. When 404 Media contacted some police departments during that reporting, some were not even aware their cameras could be searched by other agencies across the country.

Axon, simply, does not have a national network. Meaning that it would not be possible for cops in one jurisdiction to search cameras across the country. Flock even highlights this in its own side by side feature sheet about Axon: it says Flock has an “unmatched nationwide network” while Axon “data sharing is limited to agency-specific data/ecosystem; no shared national network.”

Denver, just like the City of Ferndale, explicitly mentioned this lack of this national network as part of its decision to ditch Flock for Axon. “As far as data sharing under this contract, Axon does not have a national network. There's no way that we can share it nationally. No law enforcement officer in Texas, Ohio, New York, or California can log into our system. It's only Denver Police officers and only when they're investigating an actual criminal incident,” council member Kevin Flynn said according to the Denver7 report.

Police departments using Axon can enter into data sharing agreements with each other, though. In Axon’s documentation for its ALPR product, a “shared data” option “extends the query to partner-agency detections once a sharing relationship is active.”

Of course, none of that changes the basic fact of how ALPR cameras work, which constantly scan all passing vehicles regardless of which vendor runs them. Switching vendors also does not address the more fundamental issue of whether such technology should require a warrant or not.

Neither Flock nor Axon responded to a request for comment.

Axon’s ALPR cameras differ from Flock's in some key ways. First, many of them are installed inside police officers’ vehicles. These Axon Fleet 3 cameras constantly scan the license plate of every vehicle they drive past and create a timestamped log of where each was, collecting data from locations that may not be covered by a stationary camera. 

Another is Axon Lightpost, a camera that fits onto an existing streetlight and adds a surveillance camera to it. Axon’s Lightposts are built in partnership with Ubicquia. Ubicquia’s pitch is that the devices “mount to existing streetlight infrastructure, blend seamlessly into urban landscape,” and “avoid complex permitting processes.” These cameras can also livestream, according to Axon’s website.

Sticking a camera onto an existing lamppost draws less attention than Flock’s purpose built cameras but provides similar functionality. According to Axon, “Lightpost uses an Axis Q1800-LE-based license plate camera engineered for high-accuracy captures in real traffic conditions.” The camera draws power from the local grid and runs on a cellular network maintained by Ubicquia.

Axon Outpost cameras are the ones that most closely resemble Flock’s. Like Lightpost, they also livestream, and, like Flock, record a vehicle’s characteristics like their color and make.

Axon also partners with surveillance doorbell company Ring to let Ring customers share video with law enforcement. Flock and Ring cancelled a similar planned arrangement after massive backlash.

Axon then brings essentially all of this data together in Fusus. Fusus started as a system and company that linked together a city or town’s security cameras, added AI capabilities to them, and let police query all of that data at once. 404 Media previously reported how Fusus was spreading across the country. In 2024, Axon acquired Fusus.

One reason why journalists, activists, and residents have been able to learn so much about what police use Flock for is that the company has built auditing tools that the public can access through records requests. Because of Flock’s nationwide network, it is often possible to get insight into what cops are doing in an entire state or throughout the country from a local public records request. It is not clear if the same granularity of data can be learned about Axon systems, although it does allow agencies to generate audit reports.

At one point, Axon and Flock worked together before having a very public falling out. In a January 2025 blog post, Flock said, “Axon made a surprise decision to end our partnership and cut off the API access that law enforcement depends upon.” A month later, Forbes reported Axon’s CEO Rick Smith emailed customers saying, “Flock has demonstrated a pattern of behavior that creates barriers for customer integrations in attempts to create a digital silo and coerce customers to purchase additional Flock services over Axon’s.” After that, Flock and Axon became heated rivals.

Matthew Gault contributed reporting.

Microsoft has introduced new limits to how much its engineers can spend on AI tools at work and told employees that maximizing AI use internally is not the company’s goal. 

This makes Microsoft one of the last major companies to rein in its employees’ expensive AI use. Scaling back maximalist AI use, or what some companies have called “tokenmaxxing,” is a trend we’ve covered in recent months as the price for using AI has increased while not always delivering commensurate productivity gains. 

For many public artworks, permanence is the exception rather than the rule. Jen Lewin’s The Ursas, however, has made the uncommon leap from the ephemeral landscape of Burning Man to a permanent installation along Brooklyn’s evolving Gowanus waterfront, where the monumental sculptures now anchor a newly accessible stretch of the canal.

‘The Ursas’ were installed at their new home along the Gowanus Canal on Aug. 1. Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros.

Installed at Nevins Landing on Aug. 1, the paired sculptures occupy a prominent position between the residential towers and the canal. The development, designed by Fogarty Finger with waterfront landscape architecture by Field Operations, is part of the larger Gowanus Wharf campus. The project adds a new public landmark to a neighborhood undergoing dramatic physical and cultural transformation, as former industrial sites are increasingly giving way to housing, parks, and civic spaces.

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

Inspired by the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, The Ursas explores ideas of navigation, orientation, and environmental stewardship. The larger of the two works, Ursa Major, rises 30 feet and is constructed from reclaimed ocean plastic originally sourced from Lewin’s 2022 installation The Last Ocean. Visitors can step inside the sculpture, where an infinity-mirrored chamber contains hand-drawn illustrations of species listed as extinct or presumed extinct on the IUCN Red List. Beside it, the 13-foot-tall Ursa Minor is clad in infinity mirrors and programmable LED lighting that creates an ever-shifting sense of depth and reflection.

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

“The Ursas grew out of my research into the melting Ross Ice Shelf while developing The Last Ocean,” Lewin says. “What began as scientific inquiry became a personal reckoning with the scale and speed of environmental change.”

Lewin describes Ursa Minor as “a beacon” seeking the North Star, while Ursa Major carries illustrations honoring recently extinct species. “Together, the works hold two realities at once: grief and responsibility, but also direction,” she explains. “They ask us not only to reflect, but to decide how we move forward.”

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

The installation also marks a notable moment for Gowanus, where public art is increasingly being positioned as part of broader neighborhood redevelopment rather than an afterthought. The Ursas become one of the first permanent artworks to define the identity of the four-building Gowanus Wharf campus. (The project—which will ultimately introduce more than 2,200 residential units along the waterfront—is being developed by Tavros Holdings in partnership with Charney Companies.)

Before arriving at their new home, the sculptures made a dramatic journey across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before being hoisted over Brooklyn’s Union Street Bridge and lowered into place along the canal. What began as a temporary installation in the Nevada desert in 2023 is now part of the everyday fabric of the city.

Editorial Transparency: This article was developed with the assistance of AI tools, which may have been used for research, outlining, editing, or copy refinement. Reporting, fact-checking, and editorial decisions were made by the Design Milk editorial team.