Suffolk County has quietly approved a five-year contract worth nearly $4 million for a new gunshot detection system from Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company already drawing scrutiny nationwide — and AI-powered cameras could eventually follow.
County officials confirmed to The Post that Flock Safety’s gunshot detection technology will take the place of ShotSpotter, the system Suffolk has relied on for more than 10 years to identify possible gunfire and alert first responders.
The Flock Safety devices are slated to be fully installed by Sept. 6 and will cover 23.5 square miles in Suffolk County, officials said. The company is also known for its AI-powered license plate readers, which can help track vehicles using details such as dents, bumper stickers and roof racks.
By moving away from ShotSpotter, the county expects to save about $800,000 a year, according to Jed Painter, general counsel for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, who handled the contract negotiations.
“It’s a very good deal,” Painter told The Post.
The agreement does not include Flock’s more controversial AI-powered cameras, which opponents have described as a “Big Brother”-style surveillance tool for local governments and have challenged over Fourth Amendment privacy concerns across the country.
Still, Painter indicated that could change down the road.
“We did not negotiate anything with Automated License Plate Readers or cameras… yet,” said Painter.
Painter said he finds Flock’s tech “appealing,” and was adamant that more the company’s devices and additional gunshot detectors could be on their way to the county.
This includes not only floating the idea of installing the controversial cameras around the county, but also potentially upgrading to Flock’s “Raven” system.
The “Raven” system can not only detect gunshots, but also listens for and reports car crashes, and even loud community disruptions, according to Painter.
The county doesn’t currently operate any of the cameras itself — but multiple towns, villages, and even private housing communities around Long Island have formed their own contracts with Flock Safety to install the eyes in the sky.
The new contract will allow law enforcement to cross-reference any potential gunshot detection in Suffolk County with any local municipality’s or private community’s own Flock cameras to track vehicles that were in the area when a shot is detected.
The deal was quietly approved back in April with a 3-0 vote from the county’s RFP Waiver Committee, with the gunshot detectors beginning to be installed earlier this month.
The contract comes as Flock Safety is facing a mounting wave of backlash nationwide.
In Suffolk County alone, multiple Flock cameras were vandalized last month. One of them was run over by a car and another was covered in paint, leading to an arrest last Friday, Suffolk police said.
A slew of bills have been introduced to regulate the technology, including new legislation by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, that would strip federal funding from any local governments or police departments that contract with Flock to deploy the security cameras.
The Post reached out to Flock Safety for comment on the Suffolk County deal.
