City of Lakewood
Audio By Carbonatix
People really don’t like Flock cameras watching their every move like a bad dystopian novel, especially residents of Lakewood.
The Lakewood City Council’s public comment website was bombarded with resident tongue-lashing on Aug. 10, with over 100 comments speaking out against the city’s current contract with Flock Safety to provide license-plate-reading cameras to Lakewood, mostly above busy streets and intersections, which are operated by law enforcement agencies.
The frenzy started after Councilwoman Jeslin Shahrezaei requested a legislative session in 2026 to “better understand the City of Lakewood’s Flock camera network” before the city’s current contract with Flock hits its one-year mark at the beginning of 2027.
“Across the Front Range, communities are taking up this topic to determine the path to keeping their communities safe as we see a shift in public surveillance and a need to balance crime reduction and civil liberties,” Shahrezaei said of the need for the discussion, adding that she would like to better understand how the cameras are used and what information is being recorded before contract renewal talks in January.
Shahrezaei’s request was shared on city’s Reddit forum, garnering over 100 upvotes as people then flocked over to the City of Lakewood’s public commenting page to share their disdain for the camera system.
“It’s pretty rare these days for there to be so much agreement on a particular issue across a wide range of political perspectives. Mass surveillance needs to stop, and Lakewood City Council should do anything in its power to get Flock cameras out of the city,” resident Robert Adams wrote on the city’s feedback playform.
“These cameras are not improving safety; they are only increasing surveillance. This is creating a fascist state in Lakewood, and no one wants that. These cameras must be removed, as defunding them alone still allows Flock to collect data on us,” Sandie Weathers added.
None of the 120 comments were in favor of camera surveillance — a notable collaboration for city that has seen its fair share of ideological battles, especially involving zoning and affordable housing.
Public dissent over Flock and AI-powered surveillance is not new. People began distrusting Flock after incidents where federal immigration agencies, such as ICE, accessed the company’s tracking data through local law enforcement during efforts to track down undocumented immigrants. Last year, the Loveland Police Department’s Flock cameras were accessed by the ATF so ICE could reportedly scour over license plate data. Weeks later, Denverite reported that Denver’s Flock camera information was available to access by law enforcement agencies across the country, although there was no evidence that Denver’s data was used in immigration enforcement.
Other controversial instances of law enforcement misusing Flock’s technology include an incident last November, when an officer with the Columbine Valley Police Department in Littleton used Flock camera information to falsely accuse a Denver woman of package theft. Last October, an investigative report by the digital civil rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation detailed how Texas sheriffs deputies used Flock data to track a woman who was seeking an abortion from out of state. Earlier this month, the Washington Post published a report on police officers across the country using Flock’s license plate cameras and license plate trackers as stalking tools.
Denver City Council ended the city’s relationship with Flock and removed all 110 cameras after the contract expired in March before narrowly approving a contract with Axon for fewer cameras in the city. According to the council, Axon will create a Denver-only database used by the city while Flock’s database could be accessed nationwide.
Metro residents aren’t happy with either option, though.
The City of Lakewood has not responded to an inquiry regarding the overall number of Flock cameras in Lakewood. The watchdog website DeFlock shows dozens of the AI-powered cameras throughout the city, with the majority of them on West Colfax Avenue.
In 2025, the Lakewood Police Department had access to citywide cameras through the city’s Traffic Engineering Department. The department did not have automated traffic cameras, instead using them for information after crimes occurred. This does not mean the information wasn’t available to federal agencies, however.
Surrounding communities like Edgewater, unincorporated Jefferson County, Arvada and Golden also have Flock contracts.
