While Madison has resisted installing license plate reading surveillance cameras, Dane County and most of the city’s neighbors have embraced the technology — with varying degrees of support.
More than 200 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies use license plate reading technology made by Atlanta -based Flock Safety, which has gained national attention recently for its wireless network that allows other departments like the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access data from some of the cameras.
Departments can choose who they share information with. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office, for example, has mutual agreements with multiple local law enforcement agencies but does not share the data with federal agencies, Cpt. Kerry Porter told the Wisconsin State Journal.
FLOCK CAMERA HIGHWAY
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office installed 24 Flock cameras in 2022, most of which monitor rural and state highways.
About 1,300 police agencies in 40 states currently use the cameras, Atlanta-based Flock Safety said.
The sheriff’s office policy does not prohibit partner agencies from downloading or sharing the data from Dane County with federal agents, however.
An analysis by the Wisconsin Examiner found that 11 of 13 Wisconsin county sheriffs’ offices that have partnered with ICE appeared in Flock audit data, though it was unclear how that information was used.
Two dozen Flock cameras were set up around the county in 2022, six of which are just north of the Dane County Regional Airport, while most of the rest were placed by various county, state and U.S. highways around Madison, according to data provided by the sheriff’s office.
All the county’s cameras are pointed away from the city and only capture outbound traffic, Porter said.
Valued at about $2,500 to $3,000 per year, the department was provided 24 of the cameras for free through a partnership with the National Policing Institute to study the cameras’ effectiveness.
In all, there are more than 80 Flock cameras in Dane County operated by city, village, county and state law enforcement agencies, according to the website DeFlock, which maps the location of automatic license-plate reading cameras.
CAMERAS IN THE CITY
Madison itself has not adopted Flock or similar open network camera systems. In 2021, the city updated its surveillance technology ordinance requiring departments like Madison police to get approval from the City Council, mayor and IT department before acquiring and setting up new equipment.
The mayor or council leadership can also request departments solicit residential feedback before installing new security cameras and alert them to any changes, City Attorney Michael Haas said.
FLOCK CAMERA CAP SQUARE
Four Flock cameras, operated by the Wisconsin State Capitol Police, are located on traffic lights around Madison’s Capitol Square. The city of Madison has so far not adopted the cameras.
Despite restrictions on the city government, there are a handful of Flock cameras set up within Madison, four around Capitol Square maintained by Capitol Police, and eight arrayed across the UW-Madison campus, according to UW-Madison Police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.
Many Madison suburbs have also installed Flock cameras to monitor their streets, including Cottage Grove, Maple Bluff, Middleton, Monona, Sun Prairie, Verona and Waunakee.
The Verona City Council voted against renewing its contract with Flock on Nov. 10 following public outcry, while Maple Bluff has taken the opposite approach, installing three cameras and temporarily upgrading its software to a live feed accessible to the police and municipal services director between November and January.
Monona Police Chief Brian Chaney regularly highlights cases in which Flock license plate alerts are used to assist in arrests.
FLOCK CAMERA CAR
Photos, video and audio taken by the cameras are uploaded to wireless servers where they can be accessed by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Privacy advocates warn that the technology has potential for misuse, however.
In a report last month, Jon McCray Jones, a policy analyst for ACLU Wisconsin, cited the case of Greenfield police chief Jay Johnson, who is facing felony misconduct charges after prosecutors say he ordered a department-owned surveillance camera installed outside his home to monitor his wife's movements while the couple were in the midst of divorce proceedings.
In several other cases around the country, Jones noted, law enforcement officers had used the automatic license-plate readers to stalk and harass ex-girlfriends, spouses and others not being investigated for any crime.
“This pattern of law enforcement being untransparent and unaccountable for their use of surveillance technology — combined with a booming industry of privacy-killing tools handed to officers daily — is a recipe for disaster,” Jones wrote.
©2026 The Wisconsin State Journal, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
