Cedar Rapids may be getting rid of Flock cameras, but it won’t be getting rid of automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
The Cedar Rapids Police Department’s contract with Flock ends in February. It won’t renew it. Instead, the city wants to replace Flock cameras with ALPRs from Axon.
This follows a nationwide pattern of trading Flock for Axon.
Axon is a law enforcement technology company that also makes tasers, body-worn cameras and a host of police software. Axon was an early investor in Flock and the two tech companies worked together for years — but that partnership ended in early 2025.
Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, City Councilor Dale Todd and three police representatives held a public information setting at the Cedar Rapids Public Library on Tuesday night to explain the choice.
Cedar Rapids uses Axon tech already, including the real-time intelligence platform Fusus. It’s a one-stop hub for officer location, body-cam footage and other dispatch data.
Captain Cody Estling, who leads the Criminal Investigations Division, said that Axon Outpost license plate readers will integrate seamlessly into the rest of the department’s system.
“There’s integration within our existing technology Axon ecosystem — which is kind of an overarching theme, providing that ecosystem that allows us to be more efficient,” Estling said.
Captain Doug Doyle added that Axon doesn’t keep a central hub of license plate data—local departments keep it themselves.
“We are the only ones who have access to that. Axon doesn’t have access to that system unless we grant it to them,” he said. “Only time that they’ve been granted that is during the set up process and after that process is done, we remove it.”
Flock operates a nationwide lookup database, but says sharing is optional for local agencies. But communities across the country have found Flock shared data when it said it wouldn’t, or agencies were sharing nationally without realizing it.
Cedar Rapids police said the department does not share data with federal law enforcement agencies like ICE. That brought groans, frustrated outbursts and sarcastic laughter from some in the audience who didn’t believe the officials.
“How many cameras are in your neighborhood?” one attendee shouted at the panel.
Estling said the city currently has 70 ALPRs, which he said is about one camera per 20 miles of road. The police said the number of cameras would not increase and their locations will largely remain the same.
City officials planned to answer questions that the audience submitted online for the last hour of the meeting, but attendees continued to interrupt and push back on the panel's answers. So, officials cut the formal process short and spent the last half hour speaking to constituents directly.
O’Donnell promised that the city would read all submitted questions and publish answers on an FAQ page on the city’s website next week.
