Cities are kicking out Flock. The surveillance might be here to stay.

Flock Safety spent years selling license plate cameras faster than local officials could ask questions. Now cities are shutting them off. On Wednesday, Tempe, Arizona, shut off all 33 of its Flock license plate readers and announced that it would end its contract. The city won’t hire another company to replace them.

That wasn’t always the plan. On March 26, the Tempe City Council approved a trial of Axon’s Outpost plate readers. The free, 60-day pilot included three fixed cameras and was described at the time as a test of an alternative to Flock. Wednesday’s announcement went further. Councilman Bobby Nichols said Tempe needed to “stop looking for other ALPR providers.”

‘These cameras need to be deactivated immediately.’

So Tempe isn’t merely changing the logo on the pole.