Oklahoma Chapter
Oklahoma
The founding chapter and the project's active front. Where the cameras are, who decided, what state law actually says, and what we are researching next.
Oklahoma City Status
Renewed Over Objections - August 18, 2026
After roughly seven weeks of delays, the Oklahoma City Council voted 5-3 to renew its Flock camera contract - the third renewal since 2023. The honest frame: renewed over objections, with new but limited guardrails. The cameras stay up and the database keeps growing.
The renewal, in detail
- Contract: $270,000, one-year term June 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027, 90 cameras across the city's ~620 square miles.
- The vote (Aug 18, 2026): Yes - Mayor David Holt, Bradley Carter (Ward 1), Katrina Avers (Ward 3), Todd Stone (Ward 4), Matt Hinkle (Ward 5). No - James Cooper (Ward 2), JoBeth Hamon (Ward 6), Camal Pennington (Ward 7). Absent - Mark Stonecipher (Ward 8).
- First-time restrictions: default data retention cut from 30 days to 7 days; Flock's automatic national data-sharing turned off, with the City (not Flock) holding sole, case-by-case authority over sharing with federal agencies. That is a city veto power over federal sharing - not an absolute ban.
- Public comment: nearly 30 residents and advocates spoke against the renewal. Zero spoke in favor.
To Council members Cooper, Hamon, and Pennington: thank you for voting no. Pennington said the amendment "does not change my mind about us continuing this contract with Flock"; Hamon cited distrust of Flock as a company, pointing to Evanston, Illinois, where Flock reinstalled cameras after being told to remove them.
Sources: KGOU, Sooner Sentinel, OK Gazette, Free Press OKC, KFOR.
The 7-day retention and the federal-sharing veto exist because residents stood at the microphone. Guardrails won by pressure are proof the pressure works - and proof it is not yet enough. Want to speak next time? See Three Minutes at the Mic.
The Inventory
Where the Cameras Are in Oklahoma
Confirmed deployments, from official records or credible sourced reporting. Reporting indicates more than 50 Oklahoma law-enforcement organizations use Flock; this table lists only what we have verified. Last verified 2026-08-22.
| Jurisdiction | Status | What we know | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma City | Active | Flock since 2023; 90 cameras; $270,000/year; renewed Aug 18, 2026 with 7-day retention and a city veto over federal sharing. An OCPD officer drew a year-long disciplinary probation (June 2026) for accessing ALPR and police records for personal use. | KGOU, KFOR |
| Tulsa | Active | Flock, no-bid, renewed annually by the mayor at roughly $696,000-$700,000/year. Camera counts vary by report and date - from 105 Flock LPRs (plus 150+ Flock-software PTZ cameras) to a cited 237 - and TPD refuses to disclose the locations of more than 200 cameras. That spread and that refusal are themselves the finding. | The Frontier, The Frontier |
| Edmond | Active, expanding | Flock since March 2023 (60-day pilot first): $31,000 for 10 ALPRs, then 4 more requested at $46,450 (April 2024), then a $35,400 mobile camera trailer approved unanimously (Nov 2025). Cameras also on SH-77. See the transparency box below. | Edmond Inbox, NonDoc |
| Lawton | Active | 13 Flock ALPRs; 30-day retention (as of April 2024). | Atlas of Surveillance |
| Norman / Cleveland County | City said no; county installed anyway | Norman's council rejected Flock's pitch multiple times - two presentations in three years. Flock cameras arrived in Norman anyway, via the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office and HOAs, outside council authority. | 404 Media, Reclaim The Net |
| Wagoner County | Active | Sheriff's office announced 10 Flock ALPR cameras. | KTUL |
| Bartlesville | Active | Council approved a Flock contract in 2024; the community was notified only after the decision. | KGOU |
| Guthrie | Removed | A home-state win. Guthrie contracted with Flock, then dropped the contract; the cameras were physically removed as of roughly July 2025 (after reporting that they persisted past deadlines before removal). Oklahoma towns can and do walk this back. | Sooner Sentinel, KOSU |
Leads - unverified, records requests pending
Moore, Del City, Purcell, Broken Arrow, Harrah, and Jenks are named in reporting and lists of Oklahoma Flock users but are not yet independently verified by this project. We label them leads, not facts, until council minutes or records requests confirm them.
No evidence either way (yet): Yukon, Mustang, Midwest City, Shawnee, Stillwater, the Oklahoma and Tulsa County sheriffs, OHP, and university police departments. We treat all of these as open questions. Crowd-sourced camera maps (flockcameralocations.com, findflocktulsa.com) mix police, HOA, and retail cameras and are user-reported - useful for canvassing, never cited as fact.
Case Study
Edmond: 314,000 Scans, Two Hits
In one 30-day period (April 2024), Edmond's cameras logged more than 314,000 vehicle scans - and produced 2 hotlist hits. Records requests for camera locations were denied under the Open Records Act's public-safety exemption, and the city also declined to release the list of agencies with access to Edmond's data. The total number of active devices is unknown - even the count is not public.
Documented gaps: no disclosed search frequency, no reported measurable outcomes from alerts, no disclosed audit-review cadence or discipline records, and undocumented logging for the mobile trailer's deployments.
Source: Edmond Inbox. Everything in this box is why our records guide targets policies and audit logs, not just locations.
The Legal Hook
Oklahoma Law Already Limits ALPRs
47 O.S. § 7-606.1 - the Uninsured Vehicle Enforcement Program statute - is the only Oklahoma statute authorizing law-enforcement ALPR use, and it restricts ALPR data to enforcement of the Compulsory Insurance Law. The data may not be sold, or used or shared for other purposes (Justia; OSCN).
In State v. Ifabiyi (McClain County District Court, September 2024), a judge suppressed ALPR-derived evidence in a drug case, holding that law-enforcement ALPR use beyond insurance enforcement violates Oklahoma law (Tulsa World; okhouse.gov).
Stated carefully: Ifabiyi is a district-court ruling in one case - not binding statewide precedent. What it shows is that Oklahoma's own statute gives every city council and every defense attorney a live question to ask: what state law authorizes this program's use of ALPR data beyond insurance enforcement? Ask it on the record.
The Legislature
Interim Studies and Dead Bills
- Senate interim study IS 2026-16, "Flock Cameras" - requested by Sen. Mary Boren (D-Norman), assigned to the Senate Public Safety Committee, approved in mid-July 2026. All interim studies must be completed by October 30, 2026; no hearing date is scheduled yet - watch oksenate.gov. That hearing is a key mobilization moment.
- House request IS 26-011 (Rep. Tom Gann, surveillance technology/ALPRs) was not approved by the Speaker; all three of Gann's 2026 study requests were rejected. Gann previously held ALPR interim studies in October 2024 and October 2025 (okhouse.gov).
- SB 857 (Sen. Darrell Weaver) and HB 1626 (Rep. John George), companion bills that would have authorized and regulated law-enforcement ALPR use (written policies, visual confirmation before stops, 30-day retention, no data sales), both died without a hearing in the 2025-26 session (SB 857 status; HB 1626 status). No ALPR bill passed in 2026.
A claim we checked and rejected: the "HB 658 / SB 540 ALPR prohibition" pairing that circulates in advocacy spaces does not check out on oklegislature.gov - Oklahoma's SB 540 (2026) is a dental compact bill, signed May 12, 2026. We do not cite it, and neither should you. This is our verification standard working in public.
Full methodology for how bills get listed: Bills & Policy Tracker.
Contact Directory
Verified Officials & Offices
Be calm, factual, and persistent. Ask for the demands in writing, and ask when the next public hearing on surveillance technology will be held.
OKC Mayor's Office & City Council
Mayor's Office: (405) 297-2424
Contact Mayor Holt (web form)
City Council directory
OKC City Clerk
(405) 297-2391
cityclerk@okc.gov
200 N Walker Ave, OKC 73102
Open records: see the records guide
Council appearances: (405) 297-2397
Oklahoma County Sheriff
Sheriff Tommie Johnson III
(405) 713-1000
2101 NE 36th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73111
State Representative & Senator
House switchboard: (405) 521-2711
Senate switchboard: (405) 524-0126
Find My Legislature (oklegislature.gov)
Emergency: 911. Use official agency channels for non-emergency matters.
Research Questions
What We Are Asking Every Oklahoma Jurisdiction
- Which agencies in this jurisdiction use ALPRs, and under what contracts?
- Who pays - which budget line, which grants, which private funders?
- How long is non-hit data retained, and who decided that?
- Can federal agencies or out-of-state departments access the data, and under what agreement?
- Is every search logged and audited - and has any audit ever been published?
- What Oklahoma statute authorizes this use of ALPR data beyond insurance enforcement (47 O.S. § 7-606.1)?
Answers, with documents, will be archived in the Public Records Library as requests come back.
Allies: DeFlockOKC organizes locally on this issue; their leads are independently verified before we publish them. Want to help research your town? Join the project - and watch the Meetings & Action Calendar for the first organizing meeting.