Records obtained by WIRED from a dozen Flock Safety customers show that the surveillance company's contracts often start small and then expand steadily, leaving cities paying significantly more over time. In Covington, Georgia, the police department paid $40,000 in 2020 to maintain 20 license-plate cameras. By 2024 that figure reached $113,225, and through August 2026 the city had paid $201,000 for camera maintenance, replacements, and new software products.
A similar pattern appears in Alpharetta, Georgia, where the police department paid $17,680 in 2020 for five cameras and software access. By 2025, the city's annual Flock bill had grown to $381,000, including an upgrade to the company's real-time crime-center platform and a trial of a new product. Flock also encourages long-term commitments: Alpharetta signed a five-year contract in 2024 that cost $254,250 in the first year and $238,000 per year after, which the city said saved $232,500 compared with five one-year agreements.
Flock has marketed such arrangements as a "price-lock promotion," according to a November 2023 email to Albany County, New York, that offered a five-year deal to hold current camera rates before a price increase. The WIRED report notes that these escalating contracts are now drawing scrutiny in cities across the country, though Flock did not provide a comment for the story.