South Portland ends license plate reader contract amid growing privacy concerns
South Portland ends license plate reader contract amid growing privacy concerns
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 18:29:00
Source Domain: wgme.com
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (WGME) — South Portland is ending its use of automatic license plate reader cameras after a city council vote to terminate the city’s contract with Flock Safety immediately.
The decision came during Thursday night’s city council meeting.
South Portland City Councilor Misha Pride raised concerns about who controls the information collected by the cameras.
“The issue is that Flock, a corporation, not the police, have the data. We don’t know where it is going to go,” Pride said.
The South Portland Police Department partnered with Flock Safety last summer using a federal grant. The department installed seven Flock cameras around the city in June of 2025. The surveillance cameras use AI to read license plates.
With the grant complete, South Portland’s police chief recently argued for keeping the cameras, saying they have helped locate missing people and stolen cars and have assisted in criminal investigations. South Portland Chief of Police Daniel Ahern pointed to one case involving a child from northern Maine.
“Including a 12-year-old girl from northern Maine that was abducted and kept in a van for over three days,” Ahern said. “We found that van because it went through a license plate reader in South Portland.”
During the past few city council meetings, residents and advocates also spoke against the cameras, focusing on who has access to the information collected.
Other Maine communities, including Lewiston, Auburn, Falmouth, and York, also use Flock cameras.
In Falmouth, Town Council Chair Bryce Hach said the town will also terminate its contract with Flock and transition its fixed stationary license plate readers to Axon.
“We are moving onto Axon, which really works more primarily or relays upon citywide networks, and it’s not apart of a national network the same way that Flock was,” Hach said.
In a statement sent to us Thursday, Falmouth Police Department Deputy Chief Jeffrey Pardue said:
The Falmouth Police Department uses…
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