Protestors call for the end of Flock camera contract with city, Bloomington mayor says ‘that is one of the options’

An estimated crowd of around 700 people gathered on the plaza in front of Bloomington city hall on Friday at noon to protest the city’s contract with Flock Safety. Flock is an Atlanta-based license-plate reader and public safety technology company that provides automated vehicle-tracking cameras and data services to law enforcement agencies.

Also at Friday’s demonstration protestors denounced recent killings by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At the demonstration, atrocities committed by ICE were the predominant theme for much of the signage and the chants.

Speakers linked Flock’s cameras to federal immigration enforcement and specifically to recent shootings of citizens by ICE agents, framing the issue as both a local privacy fight and part of a national struggle against state violence and surveillance.

In a video statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson anticipated the next day’s protest, telling protestors: “You will be welcomed at city hall.” Thomson is out of town, attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.

Deputy mayor Gretchen Knapp, who stood in the crowd of protestors on Friday, listening to the speeches, told The B Square that “Now is a very important time to protect [people’s First Amendment rights]. Even if it’s us that they’re yelling at, come on out, yell, and we are here to listen.” Some other city employees also stood with the crowd.

The key call for action from protestors on Friday was for the city of Bloomington to end its contract with Flock Safety. And that possibility looks like it could at least get some consideration, from both the executive and legislative branches of city governments, even if the outcome is by no means certain.

Responding to a texted B Square question during the protest, about whether there is any possibility the city would consider canceling its contract with Flock, as called for by the speakers, Thomson replied: “Yes. My goal is to keep our community safe and will make an informed decision weighing all factors but that is one of the options.”

Thomson added, “We have a meeting with Flock in mid-February.” That’s a meeting that Knapp told The B Square was already on the calendar ahead of the announcement that there would be a protest.

In a statement posted on his personal Facebook page about an hour before the protest started, Bloomington city council president Isak Asare wrote about Flock’s technology:

My preference is to eliminate our relationship with this technology entirely. The strongest protection for civil liberties is not better settings or better assurances—it is restraint. You cannot misuse data that does not exist. You cannot be compelled to share what you never collected. And you cannot normalize a form of power you have chosen not to build.

But if the city does not sever its connection to the technology, Asare’s statement describes “guardrails” that need to be in place. His statement says he is working with councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith on an ordinance that would put restrictions on the possible purposes for use of the data, impose a “hard retention cap,” require mandatory case-level justification and auditing of every search, and a “sunset clause” that would require periodic reauthorization by the city council.

Asare told The B Square that an item on the topic could be expected for the council’s second meeting in February, which falls on Feb. 18.

In her video statement, Thomson said about the Flock Safety agreement, “We currently have the strictest information policy in our contract.”

At Friday’s protest, speakers were skeptical about Thomson’s assurance. One speaker said, “Once that data is collected, Mayor Thompson, nor the police, nor anyone else here possesses it or has control of it.” About the mayor’s planned meeting with Flock representatives, one speaker said, “We don’t want the mayor to meet with Flock and be like: How can we make this better surveillance?” One sign at the protest read: “How the Flock does that boot taste, Kerry?”

Several speakers commented on the bitter cold weather—the temperature was around 18F°. After speeches at city hall, several demonstrators made their way over to Walnut Street down to Kirkwood Avenue, took a lap around the county courthouse, before heading down Kirkwood to Sample Gates at the Indiana University campus.

The crowd paused for several minutes at Sample Gates, enough time that some of the demonstrators undertook to block the southbound traffic on Indiana Avenue, which eventually prompted some of the drivers to exit their vehicles to ask protestors to get out of the way, saying they were on the side of the protestors—but wanted to get to work. Fellow demonstrators eventually coaxed their comrades into letting the vehicles pass.

From Sample Gates, the demonstration headed back up Kirkwood to the courthouse square, where the gathering again paused for several minutes before eventually dispersing.

Photos: Anti-ICE, Flock Safety Protest (Jan. 30, 2026)

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