The announcement comes amid a growing national backlash against the cameras, including protests and acts of vandalism. The technology has faced increasing scrutiny from those concerned about the creation of a camera system watching every vehicle's movement.
I’ll soon be sponsoring a bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock (and other style) cameras to surveil law abiding citizens. pic.twitter.com/FGzE69psxS
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 25, 2026
Kentucky lawmakers passed a new law regulating the plate readers this year. Jefferson County Republican Rep. John Hodgson said the issue is "something we need to get our hands around before there are big databases out there that can track the location of your license plate anywhere in America and piece that together."
Lexington first began using the cameras in 2022.
Lexington police say the city's plate readers take photos of car license plates as they drive by and cross-reference the numbers with plates associated with crimes. In most cases, they say the data is held for no longer than 30 days, with exceptions when the data become part of ongoing investigations.
Chief Lawrence Weathers defended the use of the cameras in a 2024 council meeting.
"There's a lot of cities that use this and they get the same results. No infringements upon privacy. I think the sad part of it is that people want to use it as a boogeyman and it's just not. What it is is technology that's needed today," he said.
But FLOCK has since touted expanded uses for the cameras, leading the ACLU and other critics to worry aloud about the potential for mass surveillance and warrantless tracking of law-abiding citizens.