The Wausau Public Health and Safety Committee voted on Oct. 19 to ask the City Council to withhold $50,000 payments to Flock Safety in the 2027 and 2028 budgets and to review the options for terminating the city's contract with the company.
Alder Kristin Slonski made the motion after a closed-door discussion, Alder Carol Lukens seconded it, and it passed on a unanimous voice vote. Slonski said many residents want the contract ended, even if ending it carries a cost for the city.
Before the vote, Detective Captain Ben Graham spoke for about 10 minutes about the automated license plate reader program. He said there is no evidence of data misuse or contract violations and described the city's working relationship with the company as professional, while also acknowledging the controversy around the cameras.
Graham urged the city not to rule out the technology permanently and said state-level rules could help, including clearer standards for how long plate data is kept and how open-records requests for that data are handled.
The city's Finance Committee is expected to take up the payment question next, before any final decision by the full City Council. Other central Wisconsin communities are weighing similar moves, including Stevens Point, where cameras have been ordered covered, and Wisconsin Rapids, which is scheduled to discuss its agreement later this week.
