WAUSAU — Marathon County’s sheriff says Flock deletes county camera data after 30 days, but the proof his office offered does not address data the county’s contract lets Flock use forever.
“After that 30 days, it’s gone,” Sheriff Chad Billeb told the County Board’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday. “I can make a request to Flock, I can ask for a subpoena to Flock, I can’t get it. It’s not there. That’s what they’re telling us.”
The difference matters because the cameras record every passing vehicle. The Sheriff’s Office cameras, most of them on Interstate 39 and Highway 29, captured about 468,000 vehicles in a 30-day period this fall, according to the office’s transparency portal. Under the county’s contract, Flock may keep using data built from those records indefinitely, including in other Flock products and after the county ends the agreement.
What the contract says
The county’s 2022 agreement with Flock Safety, which also covers three cameras added in 2024, promises deletion of only one kind of data: the images. Flock “will automatically delete Footage older than thirty (30) days,” the contract states…