Boulder police were hit with a class-action lawsuit Thursday morning accusing the department of using 31 Flock cameras as a warrantless surveillance system that tracked people on city roads without probable cause. The suit, filed in Boulder County District Court, says the program has run continuously since Jan. 6, 2022, and asks a Colorado court to force the city to stop using the cameras that way.

The filing centers on William Freeman, who sued alongside Gwen Steel and says he asked for all Flock records tied to his own vehicle, only to be denied by Dawn VanAckeren, a records specialist with Boulder police. Freeman is not just challenging one traffic stop or one search. He is arguing that the city’s camera network swept up anyone who drove, rode in or otherwise traveled through Boulder while the system was running, which is why the lawsuit says the number of people who could seek relief reaches into the tens of thousands.

That claim lands in a city already weighing what to do next with the technology. Boulder had a request for proposals out for license plate-reading systems since March, and some City Council members had already raised concerns about the city’s relationship with Flock ahead of a then-expected renewal. Now the lawsuit says police chief Stephen Redfearn put the cameras in place without safeguards protecting privacy, turning 31 strategically placed cameras into what it calls a dragnet search of movement across the city.

The suit also adds an issue that extends beyond Boulder’s borders. It says the city allowed law enforcement agencies outside Colorado to access its Flock data until June 2025, including some agencies known to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That detail gives the challenge a broader reach than a local records fight, because it raises the question of who could see the data and how far the surveillance net extended once the cameras captured a plate.

Boulder’s position so far is cautious rather than combative. The city said it and its police department are evaluating the claims in the lawsuit. The court fight will now test whether Boulder’s use of Flock Safety camera data fits within the Colorado Constitution’s limits on searches, and whether a system that recorded road traffic for more than three years can be treated as ordinary policing or something far closer to mass surveillance.