Police End License-Plate Camera Contract

Select Board · Meeting of August 31, 2026

Dartmouth police end Flock camera contract after privacy pushback, while the Select Board clears Eversource's underground conduit project with conditions. Chief Brian Levesque told the board Monday the department will not renew its roughly $20,000-a-year contract with Flock Safety, citing "limited overall impact relative to those costs" and mounting privacy concerns; the five cameras come down after the Sept. 29 contract expiration. Town meeting member Keith Murphy urged adoption of a "Community Control Over Police Surveillance" framework before any new technology arrives.

Separately, the board approved Eversource's bid to bury new conduit on Gidleytown and Fisher roads over abutter objections about construction quality, attaching five conditions including a work schedule and compaction oversight. The board also extended conditional job offers to five police candidates and unanimously accepted a clean FY25 audit showing a $23.4 million unassigned fund balance, 18.8 percent of the operating budget.

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• Who Was There
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Source: the Select Board meeting of August 31, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.