AURORA | The push to install Flock police cameras outside nine Aurora schools over the last year has turned into a picture-perfect illustration of how popular the cameras are — and aren’t.
Aurora police have become solid proponents of the controversial cameras and license plate readers, regularly crediting the ability to quickly spot crimes and seek out suspects. The department leans heavily on the technology in its “Real Time Center,” which boasts about 100 cameras, a drone, and multiple license plate readers
Traditionally, Aurora Police’s camera and plate-reader network served as a retrospective investigative tool, police officials say. Officers pulled footage after a crime occurred. Now, real-time technicians monitor incoming 911 calls and immediately access nearby feeds, plate-reading and mapping tools, while deploying a police drone that frequently arrives before officers.
While police and some proponents laud the systems, critics, including a growing number of municipal, state and federal legislators, have become wary of the technology or outright oppose it. Most critics point to a lack of transparency and accountability on how it could be abused to spy on innocent residents and invade privacy, or be subject to abuse by police themselves.
Monitoring teenagers at school appeals to some, in light of school shootings, school violence, teen takeovers and other crime threats.
“Based on my discussions with the superintendent, the cameras in the parking lot have assisted APD with addressing safety concerns around our school buildings, including weapons or selling drugs. I want to acknowledge that that’s a reality,” Aurora Public Schools Board member Kristin Mallory said in an interview. “For me as a board member, the question becomes one of how our students feel about the presence of this equipment in the parking lot and how the community feels about essentially the surveillance equipment?”
The idea of focusing the technology on juveniles, however, is especially unsavory for many critics.
Partnering with Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schools, school district officials confirmed that these license plate readers were installed in school parking lots.
Cherry Creek Schools, however, removed Flock cameras from its campuses earlier this year, following increasing public scrutiny and backlash nationally.
APD, however, has touted the devices for their ability to assist law enforcement, with Police Chief Todd Chamberlain calling the technology “invaluable in police work”.
Police officials say they have created guidelines for appropriate use of Flock surveillance systems in criminal investigations and locating missing people in Aurora.
“Our contract with Flock began in 2024, but we have been using (Automated License Plate Readers) technology since about 2009/2010,” said APD spokesman Joe Moylan in an email to the Sentinel.
“We partnered with APS and CCSD to install (Flock surveillance)systems near high schools to enhance community safety and to help protect students, faculty, and staff,” Moylan said. “As a state that has a history of school shootings, for example, these cameras can prove to be an invaluable tool to help us ensure student and staff safety.”
APD confirmed that Flock cameras are installed at Aurora Central High School, Gateway High School, Hinkley High School, Rangeview High School, and Vista PEAK Preparatory.
While APD officials say the technologies could be used to curb targeted school violence, critics question the logic, saying that school shootings, historically, would not have been prevented by real-time photos mostly showing students themselves going in and out of a school.
Other arguments APD pointed to in favor of automated license plate readers included supporting Amber, Silver, and Blue alerts, assisting in locating a missing person, and identifying vehicles associated with wanted individuals.
Aurora police have shown how that use of the technology has led to rapid identification, tracking and even pursuit of suspects in a variety of local cases.
Live time debate near and far over camera security, oversight
Jojo Padilla, the executive director of the student-focused non-profit Denver Healing Generations Network, expressed skepticism that these technologies actually made high schoolers or communities safer.
“The schools have removed the ability for parents and kids to consent to everyday surveillance,” Padilla told the Sentinel. “School districts, police departments, and city governments have moved full-steam ahead with these technologies, ignoring the will of voters.”
Padilla said the danger isn’t always apparent nor is it immediate.
“The main thing is because you see a lot of people who think that they are not immediately targeted, that it’s not an issue,” Padilla said, adding that he sees a level of hypocrisy in people who talk poorly of other countries with institutionalized surveillance. “I don’t understand how those same people can embrace these cameras and the government monitoring their day-to-day life, their kids, and when they go to the store.”
Privacy advocates have additionally pointed to cases of abuse and stalking by the police utilizing the mass-surveillance network of AI-assisted technology.
Recently in Indiana, for example, five officers in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Force were stalking and committing fraud using AI-assisted surveillance technologies like Flock.
Thornton’s police department faced its own Flock scandal as recently as this past April. An internal police audit “found no evidence of misuse” by the officer in question, even though only 1% of the searches were related to specific case numbers and a large portion of these searches lacked documentation.
Flock and school safety
Even school officials so far pleased with the camera installations say the school district needs to be cautious.
Mallory said that operational decisions, like the interagency contract with the Aurora Police Department involving the Flock cameras, “fall under the purview of the superintendent.”
She said she was aware of a general sense of discomfort among people around AI-assisted surveillance technology, but that she hadn’t specifically heard any pro- or anti- Flock-style camera sentiment from her constituents.
“I think that this is a broader conversation that we are willing to have, and people can come to the meetings to let us know how they feel about it,” Mallory said. “Right now, the board is really focused on our literacy rates and ensuring our school districts have resources.”
Other communities across Colorado, including Denver, Salida, Longmont, Fort Collins and Durango have cancelled or opted to discontinue their contracts with Flock. Some of these cities, namely Denver, switched to a different company to provide AI-assisted license plate readers.
Some mountain communities have seen Flock cameras vandalized or cut down.
Mallory said the district appears poised to stay the course.
“We take the safety of APS students very seriously. Safety in schools is complicated, and we want to find the right balance between being aware and having the technology to keep our kids safe,” Mallory said. “We also recognize that there are those in our community who have had different experiences with APD, and have different views on being surveilled. They have a right to privacy, and that’s a constant, and we have an obligation to keep our kids safe and balance that with protecting them from government overreach and their privacy rights. That’s all part of the value analysis we are doing on a regular basis.”