The Routt County Sheriff’s Office has recently revealed plans to cancel its contract with Flock Safety after discovering that more than 8 million searches have been conducted in the region since January 2025. The numbers alarmed Colorado residents, as Routt County currently has just under 20,000 inhabitants.
As reported by The Yampa Valley Bugle, the sheriff’s office decided to end the contract after discovering that 3,000 law enforcement agencies participated in these 8 million searches, including many agencies from outside the state. Around 1,300 of these searches were reportedly related to immigration enforcement.
Routt County Sheriff Doug Scherar revealed that the local police had opted out of the National Lookup service, which allows agencies from the whole country to access the cameras, soon after uncovering these numbers. He also criticized Flock’s lack of transparency, alleging that the department did not know that so many agencies could search footage from the county. Despite that, the sheriff explained that he did not distrust the surveillance technology itself, but rather Flock as a company.
Reports have shown that Routt County has only six cameras and has paid around $18,000 per year to participate in the service.
Colorado County Sheriff to Cancel Flock Cameras Contract
Colorado residents on r/Colorado were furious to discover that the county’s few cameras had been accessed so many times since 2025. One of them said: “Must be a real hotbed of crime… I mean, come on.”
One resident complained about the sheriff: “The [expletive] sheriff literally had the guts to say if we didn’t have them, it was a slippery slope to be a haven for criminals. Our median home price is 1.5m.”
Others seemed mistrustful that a similar service would not soon be used to replace Flock: “Now comes the name change, rebranding, and even bigger checks to local politicians. The government ain’t giving up on their surveillance state; they’ll just hide it better from us next time.” Someone else added: “We need to be vigilant that cities aren’t just quietly replacing their Flock cameras with other companies’ surveillance tools.”
Residents from other Colorado counties agreed with the overall sentiment of outrage: “Glenwood Springs Flock cameras were searched over a hundred thousand times. This includes HSI searches during the No Kings rally to watch protestors.”
As the backlash against Flock cameras continues, it remains to be seen which Colorado counties will be the next to remove the system.
