The city of Plymouth has taken the most literal possible step to end its relationship with Flock Safety: its police chief physically unplugged the company's cameras after Flock ignored the city's contract cancellation, Tom's Hardware reports.

The Plymouth City Council was left with no choice but to disconnect the devices itself after Flock failed to respond to its demands, according to the report. It's a remarkable escalation — a municipality resorting to pulling plugs because the vendor wouldn't acknowledge a termination.

The episode lands amid broader privacy controversies surrounding Flock, whose automated license plate readers blanket thousands of U.S. communities and have drawn mounting scrutiny over data sharing, surveillance scope, and who can query the network. Cities reconsidering their contracts have become a recurring storyline.

Plymouth's experience raises a practical question other municipalities will notice: if canceling requires physically unplugging hardware on your own streets, the exit terms of these surveillance contracts deserve a much closer read before signing.