DeKalb turned a $498,750 Flock license-plate camera contract into an $18.97 million, 10-year sole-source deal

DeKalb County’s police department asked commissioners in September 2025 to approve a “Change Order No. 1 request to increase funds and scope - 10 year contract not to exceed $16,800,400.00” for its Flock Safety license-plate-reader system, on a user-department form signed by police Interim Chief G. A. Padrick on Sept. 10, 2025.1,2 The version the Board of Commissioners adopted as a substitute on Sept. 23, 2025 reads “Amount Not to Exceed: $18,969,939.00.”3,4 That is about $2.17 million above the figure on the request form.1,3

DeKalb’s charter review organization act provides that “Except for contracts of employment, the commission shall authorize all contracts involving the expenditure of county funds in excess of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00),” which put the change order before the board — and made the roughly $2.17 million increase part of what commissioners authorized in a single vote.5,3,1 The substitute states only that it “is submitted to revise the requested increases and various entries and clarify that the additional services included in the Change Order are for a period of 10 years.”6 It does not itemize which scope item accounts for the higher ceiling, and the packet does not show who filed the substitute or when it was filed relative to the vote.6,1,3 The request form is a user-department document: its narrative states that “The DeKalb County Police Department is moving forward with the implementation of a state-of-the-art Real Time Crime Center (RTCC)... a major expansion of our technological capabilities through significant enhancements to the existing Flock Safety system,” and the substitute’s form line reads “User Department Recommendation.”7,8

The county’s agenda notes list the existing award being expanded as “$498,750.00 CPA 200081 (Flock Group, Inc. dba Flock Safety).”9 The legislation text says that contract “currently consists of the purchase, installation, and service of 75 Flock Safety LPR cameras.”10 The same agenda notes list “Years doing business with DeKalb: 1.”11

The $18,969,939 is a forward-looking not-to-exceed ceiling and not money disbursed: the change-order request form lists “273,750.00 - year 1 of 3,” and the form’s “Total Amount Spent to Date:” field is blank in the packet.12,13,14 The earlier $498,750 award appears to cover a three-year term based on that “year 1 of 3” entry; no document in the packet states the original term outright.9,12 Appen Media, reporting on the vote, said the first-year cost of the expansion the county calls Digital Shield is $561,000 and that “it increases from year to year over the next 10 years.”15 That $561,000 figure and the form’s $273,750 year-one line describe different scopes — the ten-year expansion and the original 75-camera agreement — and no record reviewed reconciles the two.15,12,10 The newsroom found no county-published vendor-level payment register from which the amount paid since the vote could be computed.13

In an Oct. 1, 2025 announcement, the county said CEO Lorraine Cochran Johnson “today announced the launch of Digital Shield, a $18.9 million countywide initiative that will deploy Flock Safety technology to strengthen public safety and fight crime across DeKalb,” including “Integration with the Real Time Crime Center to support live monitoring and investigations.”16,17 The county said the board “unanimously approved the investment, positioning DeKalb as a metro Atlanta leader in technology-driven crime prevention.”18 The county has defended the expansion in its own words: the substitute item states the change order “represents a major expansion of our technological capabilities through significant enhancements to the existing Flock Safety system, which has already proven to be a powerful tool in crime prevention and case resolution.”19

Where the county’s agenda notes ask for a “Solicitation Name and Number,” the entry reads “Master Services Agreement - Flock Equipment and Services (Multiyear Sole Source)” — a descriptive name in place of an invitation-for-bid or request-for-proposal number.20,21 The legislation the board adopted as a substitute carries the same “(Multiyear Sole Source)” designation.22,23 DeKalb’s Purchasing and Contracting Department states on its own page that “Informal sealed solicitations are sought for purchases under $50,000. Formal sealed solicitations are required for purchases over $50,000,” but that page does not address whether sole-source awards are exempt, and the records reviewed do not establish whether DeKalb’s purchasing code permits such an exception above $50,000.24

Two explanations for the absence of a bid number remain open on these records: that a competitively awarded cooperative-purchasing vehicle was available to the county, and that DeKalb’s purchasing code contains a sole-source exemption above the $50,000 threshold.20,24 Flock Safety tells OMNIA Partners members they get access to public safety products “through competitively solicited and publicly awarded contracts so your team can move faster, spend smarter, and skip the bid process,” available to “State & Local Government,” and NASPO ValuePoint maintains a category covering “Automated License Plate Readers and Recording Devices.”25,26,27 DeKalb’s record for this change order names no cooperative contract, and whether either vehicle was available to the county in September 2025 is not established by the records reviewed.20

A DeKalb County internal audit follow-up states that “As of February 2024, the recommended revisions to the County’s Purchasing Policy have not been implemented,” among them a recommendation on “Sole source contracts,” to which the county responded: “Agree. The suggested detail would be of benefit if added to the Policy.”28,29 The same follow-up lists a recommendation on “Multi-Year contracting,” to which the county responded “Recommend no changes to the Policy and including this information in the Contract types section of the Procedures or Training Materials”; the records reviewed do not establish that the unimplemented revisions would have required the substitute to itemize its increase.30,28,6

Backfire News, syndicated by Yahoo News, reported under the headline “DeKalb County’s $18.9 Million No-Bid Flock Camera Deal Just Produced Its First Felony Case” that county records “describe it as funding ten years of additional license plate reader cameras, AI-enabled drone first responders, mobile security trailers, more surveillance cameras, and a service called Flock 911, all feeding into the county’s new Real-Time Crime Center.”31,32,33 That report also said: “Worth noting: DeKalb didn’t run this through a competitive bidding process. Sole-source procurement is standard practice for expanding an existing proprietary platform, but it also means no other vendor ever got a chance to underbid a contract approaching $19 million.”34 Appen Media reported that “At its Sept. 23 meeting, the DeKalb County Commission approved an $18 million contract with Flock Safety for the technology,” and that the cameras and drones “will also integrate with a $2 million Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) at the DeKalb Police Headquarters.”35,36 Neither outlet’s reports reviewed by the newsroom mentioned the $16,800,400 figure on the police department’s request form, the roughly $2.17 million gap between it and the adopted ceiling, or the county’s own record of one year of business with the vendor.1,3,11 The drones are corroborated by Appen Media; the legislation text and agenda notes the newsroom reviewed name the 75 existing cameras and the ten-year term, but do not itemize the trailers or Flock 911.36,10,6

Method: this story is based on DeKalb County Legistar item 2025-1343 and four documents in its packet — the agenda notes, the user-department change order request form, the legislation text, and the substitute version adopted Sept. 23, 2025.20,1,37,22 Also reviewed were the county Purchasing and Contracting department page, the county’s Oct. 1, 2025 Digital Shield announcement, the charter review organization act, the county internal audit follow-up on purchasing policy, and the OMNIA Partners and NASPO ValuePoint cooperative-purchasing pages.24,16,5,29,38,27 Three items could not be established from these records: the cumulative amount disbursed to Flock Group Inc., because no county-published vendor-level payment register was found and the change-order form’s “Total Amount Spent to Date:” field is blank; the scope item behind the roughly $2.17 million difference between the request form’s figure and the adopted ceiling; and who filed the substitute and when it was filed relative to the Sept. 23 vote, which the packet does not show and which a records request to the Board of Commissioners clerk would target.13,1,6 The Clanker Times did not contact DeKalb County or Flock Safety for this story.37