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Suffolk County quietly finalized a five-year, nearly $4 million deal for new gunshot detectors with controversial surveillance network Flock Safety — and AI-powered cameras could be next.
Flock Safety’s technology will replace the ShotSpotter system, which the Long Island county has used for more than a decade to detect gunshots and notify first responders, officials confirmed to The Post.
The new devices from Flock Safety — the same company behind the AI-powered license plate readers that can track a car’s every move based on dents, bumper stickers and roof racks — are expected to be fully installed, covering 23.5 square miles in Suffolk, by Sept. 6, the officials said.
The switch from ShotSpotter will save the county about $800,000 per-year, according to Jed Painter, general counsel of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, who led the contract negotiations.
“It’s a very good deal,” Painter told The Post.
The contract does not include any controversial AI-powered Flock cameras, which critics have called a “Big Brother”-style surveillance system for local governments and have raised Fourth Amendment concerns nationwide
But that may change in the near future, according to Painter.
“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.
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