The University of Wisconsin-Madison Academic Staff Assembly passed a resolution on Monday calling for UWPD to end their contract with Flock Safety and publish all other contracts with surveillance technology companies, like Motorola Safeties and Rhombus.
The resolution also called for the university to align its policies on mass surveillance with City of Madison ordinances which ban surveillance technology that uses artificial intelligence. Because of this ordinance, there are no Flock cameras under Madison Police Department jurisdiction, but there are eight flock cameras on campus.
UWPD Chief Brent Plisch argued the cameras are important to maintaining campus safety and said the department has instituted certain safeguards, including limiting access to the data internally and externally, at Monday’s meeting. Faculty and community members still have concerns about Flock’s data sharing, especially as President Donald Trump escalates immigration enforcement.
Flock Safety is a private company who contracts with local police departments like UWPD to provide automated license plate readers. Newer functions, such as information sharing across agencies and the use of artificial intelligence to locate and search vehicles beyond the license plate, have been cause for ethics, security, legality and regulation concerns.
In Colorado in May 2025, a Flock spokesperson admitted the company shared data from its cameras with Customs and Border Patrol through an undisclosed pilot program. Additionally, in cities like Milwaukee and Menasha, officers have been investigated for using Flock data for unauthorized searches, like stalking ex-partners.
The resolution also calls for UWPD to clearly display an organizational accountability and reporting structure on its website. UWPD currently has a website aimed at promoting Flock transparency.
UWPD Communications Director Marc Lovicott previously told The Daily Cardinal that UWPD policy says data from campus-area Flock cameras is only shared with in-state law enforcement. However, at the time, Lovicott said he couldn’t speak to what state agencies do with their data.
Plisch said the department does not use it as a “proactive tool” for monitoring, although he did mention Flock’s potential usefulness for finding those on a Silver Alert list. Instead, he said the cameras are only used for investigation.
He said only nine individuals have internal access to the UWPD’s cameras, and described the paperwork required for an additional individual to review Flock data. Plisch said the department does not allow federal use of the system, and all external users are within the state.
“We have restricted this system to not allow anything affiliated with immigration enforcement,” he said. “Agencies within the state of Wisconsin cannot conduct a search of our data for the investigation of… ICE-led cases.”
Plisch said UWPD carefully audits all external requests to determine if other state departments will handle Flock data properly and not abuse it or distribute it to unauthorized federal agencies. He cited the recent case in Milwaukee as an example of the risks associated with not exercising sufficient caution with Flock data.
Academic Staff members, however, said they were still concerned about increased surveillance on campus, despite UWPD’s internal safeguards, especially since ICE has contracts with many Wisconsin sheriffs departments who can access UWPD's data.
“This is just another one of those things that’s a reform. This is gonna make us safer,” Barret Elward, an author of the resolution and Co-President of United Faculty and Academic Staff union, said. “It's used for that sometimes, but it’s also used as a nationwide network to catch members of our community that may or may not be documented.”
The resolution initially included a clause to call for an end to all contracts with surveillance companies on campus, but was amended to only end the contract with Flock and place all other contracts under review.
Elward was also concerned by the lack of information on how the data was stored.
“If we want these surveillance cameras on campus, they should be run by UWPD and UW-Madison, and the data should stay local,” Elward said.
The resolution said Flock has a history of not removing cameras after a contract termination, encouraging the university to remove or disable the cameras themselves if the contract with Flock ends and they fail to comply.
The approved resolution will be referred to campus administration, with the final decision on any recommendation being made by the UW-Madison chancellor, the UW System president or the Board of Regents.
