Independent watchdog site · not affiliated with the City of Golden or the Golden Police Department

The chronology

How Flock came to Golden

Every dated step this site can document, from the first reported cameras to the renewal arithmetic ahead. Where a step is missing, the record, not this page, is what skipped it.

The documented chronology. Entries marked “this site's arithmetic” are computed from the contract's terms, not stated in any record.
DateWhat happenedSource
October 2021Before the city's own readers make news, a Flock reader bought by a homeowners association in Golden's Paradise Hills neighborhood splits the neighborhood and draws national coverage in The Washington Post: objecting residents note that bears, not cars, were behind most local break-ins, and the cameras go in anyway. A private camera, not the city's, and an early Golden lesson in how little a camera on a pole says about whose it is.The Washington Post; InsideHook[12]
November 2021The police department's Flock license-plate readers go live in Golden: “between 10 and 20” installed “since the beginning of November,” per Denver7, placed in “high traffic areas, high crime areas” and credited with several arrests within weeks. No contract from this period is in this site's record.Denver7[2]
First quarter 2022Golden police credit the cameras with 52 recovered stolen vehicles in the quarter, a 240 percent year-over-year increase. “We went from having a typical call load,” special operations Sgt. Cody Schroeder tells CBS, to “going out two or three times a day to apprehend offenders.” The results the city would later cite for the program date from a period no published contract covers.CBS News Colorado[13]
September 27, 2022CBS News Colorado reports Golden has 11 license-plate reader cameras and has used the technology “for approximately one year.” Eleven is the exact camera count that appears on the order form the police chief signs ten months later.CBS News Colorado[13]
July 11, 2023Police Chief Joe Harvey signs a Flock order form for the “Golden (CO) Police Department”: 11 Falcon cameras and FlockOS Essentials, $27,500 a year, initial term 60 months, renewal terms 24 months, contract total $137,500, retention 30 days. It cites no council vote, and its 11-camera count matches what CBS had reported in the field ten months earlier. This is the earliest document in this site's record.The signed order form[1][13]
September 22, 2025CBS News Colorado surveys the state's plate readers: 60 police and sheriff departments use ALPRs, 42 with Flock contracts, and of the agencies that provided data, most allow nationwide law-enforcement search of their cameras. Golden's own sharing settings are not in the published survey, and remain unpublished.CBS News Colorado[3]
January 21, 2026Chief Harvey temporarily steps away from the role; Deputy Chief Mike Hendershot serves as interim chief.Colorado Politics[4]
February 16, 2026Harvey announces his retirement after roughly 40 years in policing. The Flock contract he signed continues on its own terms.Colorado Politics[4]
February–March 2026Next door, Denver ends its Flock contract and removes all of its cameras, roughly 110, switching to Axon. The removal is the state's most visible proof that a city can walk away.9News, Denverite[5]
March 7, 2026Statewide day of anti-Flock demonstrations. In Golden, activists place hand-written signs pointing at Flock cameras near a cluster of mobile homes: “You're being tracked.”The Colorado Sun[6]
April 29, 2026The state legislature kills SB26-070, the bipartisan bill that would have set warrant, audit, retention and sharing rules for every ALPR network in Colorado. The rules that govern Golden's cameras remain whatever Golden's own contract and internal policy say.Colorado Newsline[7]
July 1, 2026Golden names Michele Wagner, a former Lakewood police sergeant and chief investigator for the First Judicial District DA's office, as its next police chief after a national search with public finalist events in May.Hoodline[8]
August–September 2026Golden residents, in published emails to City Council, demand suspension of the ALPR program, non-renewal of the Flock contract, and removal of the hardware, citing Denver's removal and the adoption of the system “through procurement, not public debate.”City of Golden Council Comments[9]
August 31, 2026Chief Wagner responds publicly: the department has “a policy with parameters, guidance, rules and an audit process,” continues “to evaluate the benefits of Flock against the concerns of the public,” and “will be hosting a study session with Golden City Council.” As of this site's compilation, no date for that session had been published where this site could find it.City of Golden Council Comments[9]
2026, undated
(read Sept. 29)		On its “Ask Golden” Q&A page, the city states its side of the open questions: the police department owns 11 cameras (alongside private and other agencies' cameras in and around Golden), retains data “for 30 days only,” limits sharing “to Colorado law enforcement agencies,” keeps “auditable search logs,” and is “launching a transparency portal” that “should be in place in the near future.” These are the city's published claims; the setting, the logs and the portal itself are not yet in any record this site could verify.City of Golden, Ask Golden[14]
September 8 & 21, 2026Englewood's council votes to end its Flock contract; Lakewood's council votes unanimously not to renew its 16-camera contract, the first vote Lakewood ever took on it. Two Jefferson-County-area cities reach the question Golden has not yet put on an agenda.The Gazette; Lakewood council recording[10][11]
Each fallGolden adopts its annual budget. The contract's own words, “Renewal is subject to annual budget appropriation,” make every budget an implicit renewal decision.The signed order form; this site's reading[1]
By June 11, 2028This site's arithmetic: counted from the signature date, the 60-month initial term ends July 11, 2028, and 30 days' non-renewal notice would be due by June 11, 2028. The contract ties its real start to “first installation and validation,” a date the record does not contain, so the true deadline may be later, never earlier. Missing it renews the contract for 24 months at a time.Computed from the order form's terms[1]
The step that is not on this timeline

Between November 2021 and July 2023 there is no documented step at all: no agreement, no invoice, no council item this site could find, even as the fleet reached, by September 2022, the exact 11-camera count the 2023 form would sign for, and even as the department was publicly crediting the system with a 240 percent jump in stolen-vehicle recoveries. The Program page lays out what that gap means and the records request that would close it.

Citations

Sources for this page

  1. Flock Group Inc. / Golden (CO) Police Department, Order Form, DocuSign-signed July 11, 2023. PDF, 0.8 MBThe June/July 2028 dates are this site's arithmetic from the form's 60-month term, 30-day notice clause and signature date.
  2. “Golden police install license plate readers across city, make several arrests using the technology,” Denver7 (KMGH). denver7.com
  3. Shaun Boyd, “Crime fighter or mass surveillance? In Colorado, license plate readers are high-tech and widespread,” CBS News Colorado, September 22, 2025. cbsnews.com
  4. “Golden police chief temporarily steps away from role,” Colorado Politics, January 29, 2026; “Golden police chief retires after leave,” Colorado Politics, February 23, 2026. coloradopolitics.com
  5. “Denver removes all 110 Flock license plate reader cameras as contract expires,” 9News; “Denver fires Flock, prepares to switch to new roadway surveillance system,” Denverite, February 24, 2026. 9news.com · denverite.com
  6. “As AI license plate readers spread across Colorado, grassroots movements push back,” The Colorado Sun, April 27, 2026. coloradosun.com
  7. “Colorado lawmakers kill bill to limit police use of Flock camera data,” Colorado Newsline, April 29, 2026. coloradonewsline.com
  8. “After rocky year for Golden cops, Lakewood vet takes the top badge,” Hoodline, July 1, 2026. hoodline.com
  9. City of Golden, “Council Comments” page, read September 29, 2026: resident emails of August 23, September 13 and September 17, 2026, and Chief Wagner's August 31, 2026 response. cityofgolden.govThe city removes published comments after 30 days; the quotes here carry their own dates.
  10. Nicholas Fogleman, “Ditch or switch? Colorado governments decide fate of Flock cameras,” The Gazette, September 25, 2026. gazette.com
  11. City of Lakewood, City Council meeting of September 21, 2026, official meeting recording. youtube.comUnanimous vote not to renew; Lakewood's Flock agreement then terminates January 30, 2027. See also the sister site, deflocklakewood.com.
  12. Drew Harwell, “Flock license plate readers spark controversy in Golden, Colo.,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2021. washingtonpost.comOn a homeowners association's Flock reader in the Paradise Hills neighborhood, not a city camera. Summarized in the open at InsideHook, “Surveillance Concerns Spark Conflict in Colorado Suburb,” October 23, 2021: insidehook.com.
  13. “Jefferson County installs license plate reader cameras amid rise in car thefts,” CBS News Colorado, September 27, 2022. cbsnews.comSource for Golden's 11-camera count, the “approximately one year” of use, the first-quarter 2022 figures (52 recovered stolen vehicles, up 240 percent year over year) and Sgt. Cody Schroeder's quotes.
  14. City of Golden, “Ask Golden” Q&A page (Guiding Golden), read September 29, 2026. guidinggolden.comThe city's published answer on its Flock program: 11 city-owned cameras, 30-day retention, sharing limited “to Colorado law enforcement agencies,” “auditable search logs,” and a transparency portal “in the near future.” The answer carries no posting date on the page.