Are You Part of the Flock? How Cities Across the Denver Area Use AI Tracking Tech.

Mass surveillance and tracking by artificial intelligence around Denver is no longer a futuristic, dystopian idea, but a quiet reality.

Whether you’re in the Mile High City or in surrounding communities like Aurora, Thornton or Arvada, you often pass cameras tracking movements with AI, most often through programs created by Flock Safety, a $7.5 billion technology company.

Flock Safety is contracted by thousands of jurisdictions in the United States to use its AI software to catalog and track data collected through license-plate reading cameras (LPR), which are usually installed by local law enforcement agencies above busy streets and intersections. Flock’s software can identify “vehicle characteristics” like dents, stickers and color to identify and monitor vehicles, according to the company.

Most Flock cameras are set up over busy thoroughfares and intersections, at shopping centers and along the perimeters of parks and trails, according to the website DeFlock, which maps Flock cameras around the country

Some Denver metro governments even deploy Flock drones as first responders to 911 calls, allowing law enforcement agencies to look at drone video feeds while receiving information from Flock LPR cameras. According to law enforcement, this helps them to decide how to respond to calls, if at all.

However, suspicion and distrust surrounding Flock stem from incidents where federal immigration agencies, such as ICE, have accessed the company’s tracking data through local law enforcement. Over the past year, Flock’s cooperation with the federal government has overshadowed arguments by law enforcement that AI-powered surveillance helps fight crime, including in Colorado.

Denver recently announced plans to stop using Flock in favor of a camera company, Axon, after residential pushback. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are trying to limit law enforcement’s use of Flock and AI-based surveillance by requiring warrants to access certain data gathered through LPR cameras.

Here’s how jurisdictions throughout the metro area are using Flock and other AI-powered surveillance.

Getting the Flock Out of Denver

Flock cameras have been in Denver since 2024, but Mayor Mike Johnston announced on February 24 that the city would no longer contract with Flock and move on to Axon, which also uses AI for LPR services — but, unlike Flock, the Arizona-based Axon has agreed to more protective data terms, according to the mayor’s office. The new contract with Axon still needs to be approved by Denver City Council, likely by the end of March, which is when the current contract with Flock expires.

Denver City Council originally rejected a two-year, $666,600 contract extension with Flock last year, but Johnston used a mayoral budget provision to extend it himself. The public found out a couple of months later, and the opposition has been vocal since.

According to Flock Safety, there are approximately 111 LPR cameras in Denver. According to DeFlock, most of the cameras can be found along major thoroughfares like Colfax and Hampden avenues, Colorado Boulevard and Leetsdale Drive.

Last October, the city signed a free-trial contract through this August to try Flock drones as first responders, Denverite reported.

Johnston has defended the use of LPR cameras as effective crime-fighting tools. According to the mayor, the cameras have recovered more than 400 stolen cars, were used in sixteen homicide investigations and led to the “removal” of sixty firearms in recent years. There have been mistakes, though.

Last September, police officer Jamie Milliman from Columbine Valley, just south of Littleton, came to the home of a Denver woman and accused her of stealing a package. He said he had tracked her car all the way to her home using Flock cameras from the Town of Bow Mar. But Milliman had wrongfully identified the woman, forcing Columbine Valley to toss a court summons, issue a statement and send Milliman to a training course on community relations and de-escalation techniques, 9News reports.

Aurora’s All-In

The Aurora Police Department has been using the Flock drone program since November of last year. According to Flock, there are about 114 LPR cameras set up in Aurora, slightly more than in Denver.

Video from the LPR cameras and drones is monitored by APD from the Real Time Information Center at police headquarters. Aurora also uses Flock drones, and credits them for help in catching fugitives for the U.S. Marshal and recovering stolen property and illegal firearms.

Aurora police also rely on AI-powered facial recognition technology from Clearview AI, LexisNexus, and Axon, according to APD.

Arapahoe and Douglas Counties

According to the City of Greenwood Village, its police department has installed about sixteen LPR cameras since 2020; DeFlock’s map shows the cameras are operated by Flock.

Last May, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said there were three dozen Flock cameras in use in his jurisdiction, which includes Parker, Castle Rock and Highlands Ranch. In July, the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners approved a contract for an additional seventeen Flock cameras, giving it a total of upwards of four dozen, according to KDVR.

Jefferson County

According to Jefferson County, law enforcement has installed more than two dozen Flock Cameras since 2024, but some municipalities set up their own, too. The City of Arvada has sixteen of its own Flock cameras, according to the company, and the Golden Police Department set up about twenty Flock cameras in late 2021, Denver7 reported at the time.

North Metro

According to Flock, the City of Thornton has installed sixteen Flock cameras, and the City of Northglenn has ten. The DeFlock map shows these cameras are mostly around shopping centers and busy streets just off Interstate 25, which runs through the middle of both cities.

Border Patrol had access to Flock tracking data in Loveland, 9News reported in August. ICE also accessed the Boulder-area city’s Flock data through the Loveland Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to DeFlock, Loveland has close to three dozen Flock cameras.