In 2020, Covington, Georgia, paid Flock Safety $40,000 for 20 cameras. By 2026, that bill balloons to $201,000. The city’s police budget, meanwhile, stays comfortably intact.

Matthew Guariglia ponders, “Once you let police officers try a tool, it becomes really hard to get the political will to remove it.”

Flock’s strategy? Start small with homeowner associations, then expand to citywide systems with enticing upgrades and multiyear discounts. By 2025, Alpharetta’s annual tab had skyrocketed to $381,000, with five-year contracts making the price stick.

Yet, as costs soar, so does public scrutiny. Will communities eventually find the tech a liability or a necessity?