RI Gov Halts Flock Camera Expansion After Municipalities Revolt

Governor Dan McKee ordered a 60-day statewide pause on new Flock camera installations Tuesday, freezing state police activation of the surveillance technology as a wave of Rhode Island towns moves to tear the systems out entirely.

McKee directed the R.I. State Police to pause installation and activation of new Flock Safety cameras for the next 60 days, halting activation of 15 cameras statewide. The announcement landed hours before McKee's final primary debate against Helena Foulkes, who holds a 20-point lead over the incumbent in the latest polling heading into the Sept. 9 vote. Moderator Tim White pressed McKee on why existing cameras would keep running. McKee's answer: "We need to know what we're looking at." Foulkes said she backed the pause on substance but questioned the timing of the announcement just weeks before the primary, noting some communities have run the cameras for years.

The retreat has been building for weeks. Glocester, Narragansett and South Kingstown have all terminated their Flock contracts, and North Kingstown's council voted 3-2 to cancel its contract on Monday. Not every department is on board. A Flock alert in Woonsocket led directly to the arrest of a teenager in a stolen-vehicle case this week, a case police are holding up as evidence the technology works.

McKee's order applies only to state police cameras and asks, but cannot force, cities and towns to follow suit. Rhode Island State Police Colonel Darnell Weaver, the state's police chiefs' association, and the League of Cities and Towns will issue recommendations for uniform standards by mid-October, with McKee saying he'll push lawmakers to codify them once the legislature returns to session.