Troy City Council to Vote on Limiting Emergency Powers

On April 1st, 2026, city of Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello declared a state of emergency for the city. Why? Because the City Council didn't approve the renewal of the City's FLOCK Security Cameras.

The City Council was not happy about this, and will now be voting on limiting emergency powers to ensure this doesn't happen again.

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Why Did The Mayor Declare Emergency?

Currently, Troy employs FLOCK Cameras across the city. These are, in essence, license plate readers that can store information of vehicles breaking the law. Since they collect all information they see, concerns were raised about data being unwillingly collected from them.

A close up of a security camera — Credit: Canva

The contract to renew their use was up for debate, but the City Council had yet to reach a certain decision, so Mayor Mantello declared a state of emergency, allowing her to go over the heads of the council and reinstate the contract without any pushback. The council was not a fan of this... one bit.

Limiting Emergency Powers

This isn't the first time Mantello has used emergency powers for seemingly superficial reasons in the past two years. As such, Council President Sue Steele is disputing the use of these powers, stating "That's why we're amending the charter … it's open-ended with her".

The amended charter, which will be voted on on July 9th at 5:30pm, will redefine "disaster as “fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, high water, landslide, wind, storm, wave action, epidemic, air contamination, terrorism, cyber event, blight, drought, infestation, explosion, water contamination, and bridge failure or collapse.”

The council says they're not doing anything out of the ordinary, simply following state laws.