Wakefield is less safe today than it was a week ago.

This week, the Wakefield Police Department reluctantly decided to pull the plug on their use of Flock Safety cameras as a tool to solve crimes and keep the community safe.

Not because the cameras aren’t effective. They are.

And not because the Flock cameras violate the privacy of people on public streets. They don’t.

They pulled the plug because they’ve seen this movie before. They knew that their opponents were going to pack the Nov. 16 Town Meeting and force the elimination of one of the best high-tech crime-solving tools available to the department.

It was clear that no amount of facts, statistics or guaranteed guardrails on the use of Flock data would satisfy their activist opponents determined to take away a tool that has already helped Wakefield Police solve many crimes and find missing people.

WPD decided to spare the community a battle that they knew was lost before it began. Not because the anti-flock crowd was right. (They’re not.) And not because they represent the majority of voters in town. (They don’t.)

The police decided to spare the level-headed, rational citizens of the community because they know from past experience that their opponents are professional community organizers who would be working behind the scenes to get their people to Town Meeting while ordinary voters are busy working to feed and clothe their families.

And because the article to ban Flock cameras was Article 18 – the last one on the warrant – they knew that the committed anti-Flock activists would stick around to the bitter end – and even come back for a second night if necessary – while normal people have to get home to relieve the babysitter or just get to bed at a decent hour because they have to work the next morning.

Prior to WPD’s decision to ax the Flock cameras, the opponents were all over local social media pretending they support their local police.

“We have nothing against the Wakefield Police Department,” they would proclaim. “We trust our police. It’s the technology we have a problem with.”

But ever since WPD issued the statement announcing they were pulling the plug on their Flock cameras, those same people are on Wakefield social media insisting that Town Meeting should still take up Article 18 to ensure that police don’t pull a fast one and replace the Flock cameras with another brand.

What would Wakefield PD do without the “trust” of “supporters” like this?

So, now the Flock opponents are taking a victory lap and congratulating themselves on their brave stance against “mass surveillance” by Big Brother.

I’m sure they’ll enjoy the win.

Until their grandparent suffering from dementia grabs the car keys and goes missing. Or some predator snatches their child. Then these principled civil libertarians will be demanding that the police use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to find their loved one.

Just this week, a frantic Lynn mother called police after her car was stolen with her 6-year-old daughter inside. Police used Flock cameras to quickly locate the car and rescue the child. I wonder how that mother feels about Flock cameras.

It’s easy to be an armchair civil libertarian when it’s someone else being victimized by crime.

It’s harder when it happens to you.

And it will.

Just ask the Lynn mother.
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[This column originally appeared in the October 29, 2026 Wakefield Daily Item.]