Troy Becomes First City In New York To Place Restrictions On Flock Cameras

After months of back and forth between the city council and mayor of Troy, New York, the city has finally approved new restrictions for ALPR Flock Cameras.

This has been a major fight for the city council, and one that's caused more divide in the city than expected, but changes are coming, and they're coming fast.

Troy's Flock Issue

Throughout 2026, Flock cameras have been a major political issue in Troy. many residents said they felt unsafe with how much data these cameras were collecting, so the city council fought back and refused to renew the city's contract with Flock.

Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

This, in turn, caused Mayor Mantello to overstep her authority, declare a state of emergency, and renew the contract without approval. This led to an entirely different issue between the council and the mayor, which ended with the mayor's emergency powers being cut back.

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New Restrictions

This all came to a head in October, when city leaders approved new restrictions of the technology within city borders. The largest change is the timeframe data is stored, which was initially 30 days. Now, it's 72 hours before the information is wiped, and any and all searches of the data must be tied to a felony investigation.

Another major change is limiting how police officers can search for and use this data. Many citizens of Troy still believe that these restrictions are far too lenient, but the city council has agreed that these are a first step, and modifications can be made in the coming months.