Flock Off: Proposed Town Ordinance

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF NORTH SMITHFIELD, RHODE ISLAND, PROHIBITING THE ACQUISITION AND USE OF AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READERS AND OTHER MASS SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY BY THE TOWN AND ITS DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

Section 1. Findings and Purpose

The Town Council of the Town of North Smithfield finds as follows:

  1. The Town holds itself to high ethical and operational standards and contracts only with vendors whose conduct reflects those same standards.

  2. Since 2025, dozens of municipalities nationwide have canceled or declined contracts with automatic license plate reader ("ALPR") vendors, including Flock Safety, over concerns about data security, privacy, and vendor transparency.

  3. ALPR systems, facial recognition software, predictive policing software, and similar mass surveillance technologies collect and retain detailed location and identity information about residents who are not suspected of any crime.

  4. These technologies are frequently offered under vendor contract terms granting the vendor broad, perpetual rights to use municipal data, permitting data sharing with other jurisdictions and federal agencies without meaningful Town oversight, and routing dispute resolution outside Rhode Island courts.

  5. The unchecked deployment of mass surveillance technology by government raises significant risks to the privacy, civil liberties, and constitutional rights of North Smithfield residents and visitors, without a demonstrated public safety benefit proportional to those risks.

  6. The Town's own public safety data reporting has been inconsistent and difficult for residents to access, underscoring that new data collection is not, by itself, a path to greater accountability or public trust.

  7. The Town Council finds it necessary and in the public interest to prohibit the Town, its departments, agencies, and employees from acquiring and using such technology, absent future Town Council action adopting specific, enumerated, and narrowly tailored guardrails following public hearing.

Section 2. Definitions

For purposes of this ordinance, the following definitions apply:

"Automatic License Plate Reader" or "ALPR" means any camera or sensor system capable of capturing images of vehicle license plates and using optical character recognition to convert plate numbers into searchable data, together with any associated software, hardware, or database used to store, analyze, or share that data.

"Biometric Surveillance Technology" means any computer software or system that performs facial recognition, gait recognition, voice recognition, iris or retina scanning, or other automated or semi-automated processes to identify or attempt to identify a specific individual based on physiological or behavioral characteristics.

"Predictive Policing Technology" means any software or system that uses historical data, algorithms, or artificial intelligence to forecast where crimes may occur, who may commit or be a victim of a crime, or to generate risk scores for individuals or locations.

"Surveillance Technology" means ALPRs, Biometric Surveillance Technology, Predictive Policing Technology, and any other electronic device, software, or system whose primary purpose or capability is to collect, capture, record, retain, analyze, process, or share information about the identity, movements, activities, or communications of an identifiable individual or vehicle, including but not limited to cell-site simulators ("stingrays"), social media monitoring software, and ALPR-equipped drones. "Surveillance Technology" does not include: (i) routine office productivity software; (ii) body-worn or dashboard cameras used by the Police Department that do not employ biometric or predictive analytic capability, which remain governed separately by Town policy; or (iii) standard building security cameras that do not perform automated identification or plate-reading functions.

"Town" means the Town of North Smithfield, Rhode Island, including all of its departments, boards, commissions, agencies, and employees.

"Vendor" means any person or entity, including Flock Safety, Inc. and its affiliates, that sells, leases, licenses, or otherwise provides Surveillance Technology or related data services.

Section 3. Prohibition

  1. The Town shall not acquire, lease, license, install, deploy, or use any Surveillance Technology, whether owned by the Town or a third party, within the Town of North Smithfield.

  2. No Town department, agency, employee, or official may enter into, renew, or extend any contract, agreement, memorandum of understanding, or data-sharing arrangement with any Vendor for the acquisition or use of Surveillance Technology.

  3. No Town department, agency, employee, or official may request, receive, access, or use data generated by Surveillance Technology obtained from any other jurisdiction, agency, or third party, including through regional data-sharing networks, absent a valid judicial warrant.

Section 4. Termination of Existing Contracts and Removal of Equipment

  1. Any existing contract or agreement between the Town and a Vendor for Surveillance Technology, including any agreement with Flock Safety, Inc., is void as of the effective date of this ordinance to the maximum extent permitted by law. The Town shall take all legally available steps to terminate any such contract at the earliest opportunity, and in no event later than sixty (60) days after the effective date of this ordinance.

  2. Upon termination, the Vendor shall be directed to remove all Surveillance Technology hardware from Town property within thirty (30) days. If the Vendor fails to do so, the Town may remove the hardware itself and invoice the Vendor for the reasonable cost of removal and storage.

  3. The Town shall request, and any Vendor contract entered into after the effective date shall require, certification of the deletion of all data collected within the Town of North Smithfield that remains in the Vendor's possession, custody, or control, except to the extent retention is required by an active, valid judicial warrant or subpoena.

Section 5. Future Use of Surveillance Technology

The Town shall not contract with any Vendor for, or otherwise adopt, any Surveillance Technology unless and until:

  1. the Town Council holds at least one duly noticed public hearing to solicit public comment on the proposed technology, its intended use, and associated data-sharing practices;

  2. the Town Council makes specific written findings that the proposed use is necessary, proportionate, and narrowly tailored to a specific public safety purpose; and

  3. the Town Council adopts, by ordinance, specific guardrails governing that technology's use, including at a minimum:

    1. a maximum data retention period;

    2. a prohibition on sharing data with agencies outside Rhode Island absent a judicial warrant;

    3. a requirement that any Vendor contract designate the Town, not the Vendor, as sole owner of all data collected;

    4. an audit log of all searches, including the identity of the searcher and a documented, specific purpose for each search;

    5. annual public reporting on the technology's use, including the number of searches conducted and their stated purposes; and

    6. a sunset provision requiring Town Council reauthorization of the technology's continued use no less often than every three years.

Section 6. Community-Oriented Public Safety and Transparency Measures

In place of surveillance technology, the Town commits to strengthening public safety through direct community engagement and transparent reporting:

  1. Quarterly Public Safety Data Report. The Police Department shall publish a quarterly report in a standardized, publicly accessible format on the Town website that summarizes calls for service, reported crime by category and location (excluding personally identifying information), response times, and case clearance rates.

  2. Community-Police Advisory Committee. The Town Council shall establish a resident advisory committee, including Police Department representation, to meet at least quarterly to review public safety trends, hear resident concerns, and recommend department policy and budget priorities.

  3. Neighborhood Watch and Community Policing Support. The Town shall provide funding, training resources, and Police Department liaison support to resident-organized neighborhood watch groups and community policing initiatives, in lieu of camera-based surveillance networks.

  4. Annual Public Safety Forum. The Police Department shall hold at least one annual public forum, separate from the Town Council's regular meetings, dedicated to public safety priorities, department performance, and resident feedback.

  5. Unencrypted Public Radio Communications. The Police Department shall transmit its dispatch and patrol radio communications unencrypted, in a form that residents, journalists, and the public can monitor with commonly available scanners and public monitoring services. Any encryption of Police Department radio communications in place on the effective date of this ordinance shall be discontinued within sixty (60) days. Encryption is permitted only for tactical, undercover, or investigative operations where the Chief of Police determines in writing that open transmission would endanger officers or the public or compromise an active investigation, and only for the duration of that operation. Rhode Island law requires that information identifying victims, minors, or witnesses be relayed by means other than open radio transmission. The Chief of Police shall report annually to the Town Council on any use of encryption under this item.

  6. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or restrict the staffing, equipment, or resources reasonably necessary for the Police Department to carry out its public safety mission, other than the Surveillance Technology prohibited by Section 3.

Section 7. Enforcement

  1. Any Town employee or official who violates this ordinance shall be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with applicable Town personnel policy.

  2. Any data collected, retained, or shared in violation of this ordinance is inadmissible in any Town administrative or enforcement proceeding and may not be used as the basis for any Town enforcement action.

  3. Any resident of the Town may bring an action in Rhode Island Superior Court to enforce the provisions of this ordinance.

Section 8. Severability

If any provision of this ordinance, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the ordinance and the application of that provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected.

Section 9. Effective Date

This ordinance shall take effect immediately upon passage.