Active
Who approved this?
No source names who approved this contract. That gap is common where a purchase cleared without a council vote.
Waltham police installed 16 Flock Safety cameras across the city under a two year agreement worth 96,000 dollars that began in fall 2025. The Waltham Times reported the department paid with court seized civil forfeiture money, which meant no City Council vote and no budget hearing on the purchase. The master services agreement gives Waltham ownership of the collected data while allowing Flock limited use of anonymized data for product work. ACLU of Massachusetts policy counsel Gideon Epstein said department audit logs often list only a generic word such as investigation as the reason for a search. The Boston Globe reported on August 21, 2026 that Waltham had added AI assisted auditing on top of human review of searches. No data retention period, no camera locations and no contract end date are stated in either source. No approving body, vote tally or roll call exists to record.
Renewal date pending
The contract end date has not yet been confirmed from records.
The money
- Contract amount: $96,000
- Cameras: 16
- Contract amount per camera: $6,000 (about $3,000 a year)
- Term: 24 months
- Funding source: Asset forfeiture
What happens next
Renewals are decided in public. Residents can attend the meeting, speak during public comment, and write to the office above through official channels. The ACLU publishes a model cancellation resolution officials can adapt.
Sources
- Waltham Times: privacy concerns persist over Waltham Flock Safety cameras (June 28, 2026) walthamtimes.org
- The Boston Globe: Flock license plate cameras under fire as Massachusetts police misconduct cases mount (August 21, 2026) bostonglobe.com
Last verified: September 8, 2026. Something wrong? Request a correction.
The record
The sources do not say who approved this contract. Waltham Police Department runs the cameras.
The stated price: $96,000. The agreement spans 2 years. Cameras: 16. That comes to about $6,000 per camera. Funding: Court seized civil asset forfeiture funds held by the police department. The Waltham Times reported the purchase did not require a City Council appropriation, so it bypassed the usual financing review..
The contract is active.
2 sources back this record; each is listed with its date under Sources. Last verified September 8, 2026. More from the state: the Massachusetts hub. Everything: the tracker.
Cite this record
Who Approved This, "Waltham, MA Flock Contract," whoapprovedthis.org, accessed October 13, 2026, https://whoapprovedthis.org/city/ma-waltham/.
Related
Read on
- Salem, MA Expired
- Cambridge, MA Canceled
- Grafton, MA Canceled
- Camera locations near Waltham: DeFlock (external, crowdsourced)
- Agency transparency portal, if published: transparency.flocksafety.com; aggregated at Eyes on Flock