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The Syracuse Common Council voted Monday (February 9) to replace the company operating the city's license plate readers following a data leak incident. In a 7-1 vote, council members approved switching vendors from Flock Safety to Axon Enterprises after discovering Flock had shared Syracuse drivers' data with other clients, including federal immigration authorities.
"I'm comfortable moving forward with them, but understand this: we're going to try this with Axon. Contracts are revocable, for many reasons, and if Axon was to begin down a path that we did not like as far as data, we would revoke it," said Councilor Jimmy Monto, who sponsored one of the agenda items related to the Axon contract, according to Central Current.
The controversy began when it was revealed that Flock Safety, which has provided license plate readers to Syracuse since summer 2024, had inadvertently exposed sensitive data on Syracuse drivers' movements. Further investigation showed Flock had deceived the city about the nature of its data privacy agreement and other contract terms.
Syracuse Deputy Police Chief Richard Trudell and city attorneys have assured council members that data from Axon would be "solely owned by SPD [Syracuse Police Department], not by the vendor." According to WSYR-TV, the data would be stored in remote servers operated by Axon.
The five-year contract with Axon will cost $423,000 and include 26 license plate readers throughout the city, doubling the current number. The first 12 months will come at no charge to the city, according to Syracuse.com.
The decision wasn't without opposition. About two dozen local activists attended the council meeting to protest the switch to Axon, expressing concerns about potential data breaches and the company's existing contracts with federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Councilor Hanah Ehrenreich cast the lone vote against the measure.
Under the Syracuse Police Department's data retention policy, all information gathered from license plate readers will be deleted 30 days after collection unless it's part of an active criminal investigation.
The changeover from Flock to Axon is expected to begin March 1, though officials haven't specified exactly when the new readers will be operational.