The City and County of Denver still hasn’t officially broken up with automated license plate reading camera vendor Flock Group, as members of the City Council agreed Monday to delay approving a new contract with Arizona-based ALPR maker Axon.

Denver Councilman Kevin Flynn asked the council to postpone the contact for one week.

Several on the council called into question risks of approving the contract before the city has an overarching ordinance on surveillance.

Residents and privacy advocates filled the Parr-Widener Community Room for a special one-hour courtesy public hearing on the matter, with 55 individuals signed up for comment. 

While Axon’s proposed $150,000 contract for a 50-camera system is about half of Denver’s current 111-camera system with Flock, opponents argue the technology poses the same risks because there are “no proper guardrails” in place to protect their privacy and personally identifiable information, the statement added.

Privacy and civil rights advocates have stated that the matter has come down to the wire as Flock’s contract with the city ends March 31.

The new Axon contract was not shared with Task Force members until March 19, and shared with the City Council on March 13, just five days before the committee vote, according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union.  

In a letter sent to the Denver City Council prior to the vote, several community, advocacy, and civil rights organizations, as well as the Denver Surveillance Task Force, asked the councilors to vote “no” to “prevent the city from rushing into a new contract.”

The opponents argued that Mayor Mike Johnston’s plan to switch vendors “does little to protect the civil rights of people living and visiting Denver.”

“This process is being rushed. Take a breath, turn off the Flock cameras on March 31, put a hood on them until they are removed,” Marilym Ackerman said during the one-hour public hearing. “Then City Council can wait for the Surveillance Task Force members to create a surveillance policy that answers questions and provides guardrails.”

Supporters of the technology, which include Johnston and the Denver police, say it saves lives and helps solve crimes.

“What we have done with this contract is try to balance the very real benefit to public safety that it provides with the very legitimate privacy and civil liberty considerations that the mayor shares, and that you all members of council chair and that these community members have shared, Johnston spokesperson Tim Hoffman said.

Added: “Yes, get to take advantage of this tool, which has helped us reduce crime in Denver, and making sure that we have robust safe.”

“Let’s give DPD access to the technology that can help them quickly find, track and remove the threat of violant criminals from our streets,” Denver Business owner Derek Friedman told City Coucnil members.

“The city cannot simply move from one dragnet surveillance company to another and trust that these for-profit companies will put people’s civil liberties first,” ACLU of Colorado’s public policy director, Anaya Robinson, said.

Robinson added: “The city must implement critical protections around data retention, information sharing, access limitations, and meaningful community input and legislative approval policies to prevent abuses from government agencies and law enforcement. Continuing to operate this risky, unregulated surveillance technology in the city carries far greater risks than pausing the ALPR program.”

However, Robin Engel, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, finds the Axon contract with the city agreeable.

“From my perspective, after reviewing the current contract under discussion, I found it to be especially strong carefully threading the needle between the ambitious goals of improving public safety while also protecting the collection, storage, sharing and use of surveillance technology,” Engel said.

But just because the city of Denver will no longer have an agreement with Flock, privately owned Flock cameras, owned by HOAs and local businesses, will still remain, and Denver police could still have access to them if the owning entity cooperates.

The resolution will be back before the full City Council body on March 31, as City Council offices will be closed on Monday, March 30.

Axon is no stranger to the Mile High City.

In December 2025, the City Council approved a new five-year, $27 million contract with Axon for 2,563 new body cameras and 2,175 Tasers.