Denver Police Chief Touts New Axon Cameras as Privacy-Focused Alternative

Thomas says the new system will reduce the surveillance footprint while still aiding investigations

Mar. 31, 2026 at 10:18pm

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Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas is urging the Denver City Council to approve a new contract with Axon, a license plate reader technology provider, as a privacy-focused alternative to the previously used Flock system. Thomas says the new Axon system will reduce the number of cameras from 111 to 50, be evenly distributed across the city, and give the department full control over the data without allowing access to other agencies or the ability to sell the information.

Why it matters

The move to Axon's system comes after months of discussions around privacy concerns with the previous Flock license plate reader cameras. This decision aims to balance law enforcement's needs with community concerns over surveillance and data privacy.

The details

Denver decommissioned the Flock license plate reader camera system just hours before the city council's scheduled vote on whether to move forward with Axon. Chief Thomas says the new Axon contract will give the department full control over the data, with no opportunity for it to be accessed or sold by outside parties. The number of cameras will be reduced from 111 to 50, and they will be evenly distributed across the city based on factors like violent crime, high-injury accidents, and stolen vehicle data.

  • On March 31, 2026, Denver decommissioned the Flock license plate reader camera system.
  • The Denver City Council is scheduled to vote on the Axon contract in the coming days.

The players

Ron Thomas

The Denver Police Chief who is urging the city council to approve the Axon contract.

Mike Johnston

The Denver Mayor who first announced the proposed Axon contract in February 2026.

Axon

A license plate reader technology provider that Denver has selected as a privacy-focused alternative to the previous Flock system.

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What they’re saying

“We understood the privacy and protection concerns with Flock, and so all of those have been satisfied with this new Axon contract. We own the data. So, there's no opportunity for them to sell the data. There's no opportunity for anyone to gain access to our data. The only way that that would ever happen is if someone were to subpoena us for the data, and then we would vigorously defend that subpoena. And so we don't want this information to be used by anybody else.”

— Ron Thomas, Denver Police Chief

“We went down from 111 to 50. And I think that they are dispersed pretty evenly across the city. And so, there's no one area of town that has a higher number of cameras than another neighborhood, and they are all chosen with sort of a matrix of violent crime and high injury accident networks and also stolen vehicles, and so just a very data-informed decision on where to put those cameras.”

— Ron Thomas, Denver Police Chief

What’s next

The Denver City Council is scheduled to vote on the Axon contract in the coming days.

The takeaway

This decision by the Denver Police Department aims to address community concerns over surveillance and data privacy while still providing law enforcement with the tools they need to investigate crimes and assist other jurisdictions. The reduction in the number of cameras and the department's control over the data are key components of this privacy-focused approach.