Two suburban police departments on either side of the Delaware River have told Flock Safety they are done. Abington Township is pulling its three cameras, and Cherry Hill will retire ten when its agreement runs out in December.
Abington’s reason is the one vendors dread from a paying customer: Chief Patrick Molloy says the company suffered data and security lapses his township could not accept, so the contract ends.
Nothing about the underlying capability is being surrendered. Abington will keep reading plates through Axon, an already-signed supplier of body cameras, because the chief believes that setup leaves his agency holding its own records.
Three states, one vendor, one number
NBC10 investigators sized the regional market at roughly 5,800 plate cameras across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Flock operates more than 2,700 of them, and the Philadelphia area alone holds above 2,000, with Flock supplying over half.
Ownership is not always traceable. A unit near Cherry Hill Mall belongs to nobody on paper: the police denied running it, mall management denied it, and one large retailer would neither confirm nor deny.
Neither department argues that the technology failed. Abington’s investigators tied a theft ring to suspects who flew in from another continent, and the chief gives the readers credit for the link. What changed is the question of custody: who holds the records once written, and who else can reach them.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania wants an outright ban rather than tighter rules, calling a prohibition cleaner and more protective than regulation. Cherry Hill’s exit lands while lawmakers in Trenton and Harrisburg weigh restrictions. A Flock spokesperson, Paris Lewbel, called that an overreaction that would cost departments a working investigative aid.
The pattern is now familiar. Departments keep the capability, drop the vendor, and buy the audit trail instead.
