Three months after Longmont residents packed city council chambers to push back against Flock Security Systems, the city has a new surveillance technology vendor, but many of the same questions remain unanswered.
During Tuesday night’s council meeting, the Longmont Police Department presented Axon as its preferred alternative for automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology. Public Safety Chief Zach Ardis and his team spoke on Axon’s data encryption processes and superior security protocols as compared to Flock. Assistant Chief Phil Piotrowski highlighted the department’s longstanding relationship with Axon. He noted that the 25-year partnership began when taser technology was first implemented in 2000 and has grown to be a trusted vendor for the department.
“They’ve been integral in police operations throughout that time” Piotrowski explained, “They’ve built their product in a way that they understand what we need for security from them.” He added that Axon operations align with Longmont Police Department’s best practices.
Council voted shortly after to move forward with the contract, a decision that landed quickly enough to catch many residents off guard. The pivot followed a December 2025 meeting in which council voted 5-1 to reject any expansion of its contract with Flock, responding to hours of public testimony about privacy violations, data misuse, and concerns about mass surveillance. Since then, DeFlock Longmont, a local movement opposing the city’s use of Flock Safety, has remained active in organizing around surveillance issues in the city…