News, research, FOIA documents, and analysis on Flock Safety.
Virginia's survey of ALPR compliance found 21% of agencies kept data beyond the 21-day legal limit, 21 agencies gave continuous out-of-state access, 9 shared with federal agencies (both prohibited), 16% had no ALPR policy, and 35% hadn't notified the public. Nearly a third of agencies didn't even respond.
A Flock ALPR misread a character on a family's license plate, flagging their SUV as stolen. Both parents were handcuffed while their infant was in the vehicle. The officer blamed the error on a license plate frame. After releasing the family, officers accidentally drove away with their keys.
Gibbs Mura and Milberg PLLC filed a class action alleging Flock violated California's ALPR Privacy Act by sharing license plate data with out-of-state agencies. Out-of-state agencies searched SFPD's Flock database 1.6 million times in seven months.
Federal agencies including the FBI, ATF, and GSA accessed El Cerrito's ALPR data without the department's knowledge from installation. Even after safeguards were installed, federal agencies breached the system two more times — USPS Inspection Service and VA Police.
Profiles the DeFlock grassroots movement with at least 15 local anti-Flock groups organizing across the country. At least 30 localities have canceled or paused contracts since early 2025. Flock CEO Garrett Langley called DeFlock a 'terroristic organization.'
Milwaukee Officer Josue Ayala ran 179 unauthorized Flock searches — 55 times on a woman he was dating and 124 times on her ex-partner. The misuse wasn't caught by internal monitoring — one victim found their plate on HaveIBeenFlocked.com. Ayala resigned before his court date.
San Jose PD was retaining all ALPR data for one full year, far beyond Flock's stated 30-day default. The police chief asked the City Council to reduce retention to 30 days, confirming that Flock allows departments to quietly extend retention with minimal oversight.
Protesters have physically dismantled Flock cameras in at least five states, with one activist in Virginia reportedly destroying at least thirteen cameras. The physical resistance accompanies a broader political movement that has seen 30+ cities cancel contracts. Flock scans over 20 billion plates per month across 5,000+ agencies.
Flock Safety scans over 20 billion license plates per month across 5,000+ agency customers. More than 75% of departments opt in to provide data to the national database, which can be accessed without warrants — making it the largest warrantless location-tracking system in American history.
Ventura County's 'national lookup' feature was toggled back on without authorization after being disabled to comply with California law. In one month, external agencies conducted over 364,000 searches, with 299 queries linked to immigration enforcement. Flock could not explain how the feature was reactivated.
NPR reports at least 30 U.S. cities have canceled or deactivated Flock contracts since early 2025. Flock operates cameras in over 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, but revelations that federal agencies including Border Patrol accessed local data without consent have fueled a nationwide backlash.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched its 'Get the Flock Out' campaign in February 2026, providing resources and toolkits for communities to challenge Flock Safety contracts. The campaign coincides with a growing nationwide movement that has seen 30+ localities cancel or pause their Flock agreements.
Amazon's Ring canceled its planned integration with Flock Safety amid backlash over Ring's Super Bowl commercial and growing concerns about Flock's data-sharing with ICE. The partnership would have allowed law enforcement to request video footage from Ring users through Flock's platform.
After Canyen Ashworth published an op-ed criticizing Lenexa PD, the entire patrol division was mobilized to hunt him using ALPR. The chief issued a BOLO with no charges, declaring 'This is MYOC' — make your own case — instructing officers to find any pretext to stop him. The ACLU called it 'a wanton and disgraceful abuse of power.'
ACLU analysis of 11.4 million Flock searches found over 14% contained only the word 'investigation' as justification. Approximately 20% used vague terms potentially obscuring protest surveillance, immigration enforcement, and personal stalking. Officers were documented self-censoring after exposure.
Despite marketing audit logs as 'immutable' and 'tamper-proof,' Flock stripped officer names, plates, and filters from logs provided to agencies. Over 14% of all searches contained only 'investigation' as justification. Flock's communications chief stated 'it is not Flock's job to police the police.'
Multiple police departments released unredacted Flock audit logs through public records requests, exposing 2.3+ million license plates and tens of millions of searches. The data was aggregated on HaveIBeenFlocked.com. Flock threatened the site's web hosts and restricted audit log access going forward.
A federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia upheld Norfolk's use of 176 Flock cameras as constitutional, but explicitly warned that further expansion could 'tip' the balance into unconstitutional territory. The Institute for Justice is appealing to the Fourth Circuit, setting up a potential landmark ruling on mass ALPR surveillance.
A comprehensive year-end review documenting how EFF investigations revealed Flock's ALPR network was used to track protesters, facilitate discriminatory policing against Romani communities, and surveil women seeking reproductive healthcare. The investigations sparked federal inquiries and landmark litigation.
Flock left livestreams and admin panels for at least 60 AI-enabled Condor cameras exposed to the open internet without password protection. Anyone could watch live feeds, download 30 days of video, change settings, and run diagnostics.
A federal judge released the locations of about 600 Flock Safety cameras in the Hampton Roads region as part of the Institute for Justice's pending federal lawsuit. The disclosure was significant because Flock and police departments had previously resisted releasing camera locations.
Flock accidentally exposed training materials revealing it employs overseas gig workers from the Philippines via Upwork to review and classify U.S. surveillance footage for its machine learning algorithms, raising concerns about foreign access to sensitive domestic surveillance data.
Menasha Officer Cristian Morales used Flock while off duty to track his ex-girlfriend, logging 'welfare' as justification. He admitted the searches were driven by 'desperation, bad judgment, combined with a lack of sleep.' Charged with misconduct in public office — a Class I felony carrying up to 3.5 years.
Braselton Police Chief Michael Steffman conducted 2,707 Flock searches in 101 days — 411 of a single plate — to stalk private citizens not under investigation. Twenty percent of searches occurred outside work hours. He also accessed California's Flock data. Resigned one day before arrest on stalking charges.
EFF analysis of 10 months of nationwide Flock search data found more than 50 agencies ran hundreds of searches connected to protest activity. Many searches logged only 'protest' as justification, demonstrating how mass surveillance enables tracking of First Amendment activities without warrants.
Security researchers found Flock cameras run a discontinued Android OS with no security updates since 2021, store images unencrypted, transmit credentials in cleartext, and can be fully accessed via a button sequence on the device. Multiple CVEs were registered including cleartext storage and hardcoded passwords.
SIREN (Surveillance Information Resistance and Education Network) filed suit with EFF and ACLU challenging the San Jose Police Department's warrantless ALPR searches under the California Constitution, which provides stronger privacy protections than the federal Fourth Amendment.
A Skagit County judge ruled Flock camera images are public records under Washington's Public Records Act, even when stored by a third-party vendor. The judge found the scope of Flock surveillance was 'so broad and indiscriminate' that the data must be released, prompting multiple cities to shut off cameras.
Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi requested an FTC investigation into Flock for failing to enforce multi-factor authentication. Researchers found passwords for at least 35 Flock customer accounts stolen via infostealer malware and sold on Russian cybercrime forums.
EFF discovered over 80 U.S. law enforcement agencies searched Flock's ALPR network using racial slurs and ethnic stereotypes targeting Romani people. Between June 2024 and October 2025, police conducted hundreds of searches using slurs, often without citing any specific crime.
Flock flagged a father's Ford Fusion as 'associated' with his son, who was wanted on a felony warrant. Police knew the car was registered to the father, but handcuffed him in his driveway anyway. The incident contributed to Redmond's City Council voting to disable all Flock cameras.
A Columbine Valley officer accused Chrisanna Elser of stealing a package based on Flock camera footage of her Rivian. The officer refused to show her the video and told her to bring evidence to court. She spent weeks compiling evidence before the police chief acknowledged the error and dropped the summons.
The ACLU of Oregon sued the City of Eugene for refusing to disclose the locations of at least 57 Flock cameras. Eugene cited security exemptions to deny the public records request, in contrast to other Oregon cities that disclosed their camera locations without issue.
University of Washington researchers documented how CBP had 'back door' access to at least 10 local agencies' Flock ALPR data without explicit authorization. Over 4,000 lookups were done at the behest of or as informal favors to federal immigration enforcement.
Court documents revealed Johnson County Sheriff's Office used Flock to track a woman who self-managed an abortion, despite publicly characterizing the search as a missing person case. Deputies logged evidence of the woman's abortion and consulted prosecutors about possible charges.
California Governor Newsom vetoed SB 274, which would have imposed stricter privacy requirements on ALPR systems, despite mounting evidence of Flock Safety's unauthorized data sharing with federal and out-of-state agencies. Three states — Arkansas, Idaho, and Virginia — passed new ALPR laws in 2025.
IPVM found Flock's Falcon camera had a 10% error rate, misread license plate states 1-in-10 times, and regularly misidentified vehicle makes. Syracuse councilors were not informed of these findings before voting to approve the system. Syracuse subsequently moved to terminate its Flock contract.
Two members of Congress launched a formal investigation into Flock demanding details of all searches related to ICE, CBP, and abortions. The inquiry focused on Flock's role in enabling invasive surveillance practices that threaten the privacy, safety, and civil liberties of vulnerable Americans.
The Institute for Justice launched the Plate Privacy Project, combining nationwide litigation with model legislation to challenge mass ALPR surveillance. The campaign aims to establish Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless license plate tracking and provide legislative templates for cities and states.
VPM investigation found nearly 3,000 immigration-related searches on Virginia's Flock ALPR network over 12 months. Despite Flock claiming no ICE relationship, CBP conducted a pilot program and local agencies performed thousands of lookups as informal favors for federal immigration enforcement.
Orange City Officer Jarmarus Brown used Flock and the DAVID police database to track his ex-girlfriend, even asking a fellow officer to help him 'stakeout' her vehicle. The victim described extremely controlling behavior — limiting her makeup, fingernail length, and demanding constant location sharing. Charged with stalking and unauthorized computer access.
EFF documents the systemic human cost of ALPR misreads and database errors: families held at gunpoint, children handcuffed, cars seized for weeks, and a driver mauled by a police dog. Industry accuracy of roughly 90% means 1-in-10 plates are misread, generating thousands of wrongful alerts annually.
The Institute for Justice filed a Fourth Amendment challenge to Norfolk's use of 172 Flock cameras, arguing blanket ALPR surveillance constitutes an unconstitutional search. NBC News reported one plaintiff was tracked 526 times in four months. Flock attempted to intervene in the case but was rejected.
Police used ALPR to identify all Dodge Chargers near a shooting, found Isoke Robinson's car 2 miles away, handcuffed her, put her autistic 2-year-old in a patrol car, and impounded her vehicle for 3+ weeks without ever checking if it matched the suspect vehicle. She settled for $35,000.
Sedgwick Police Chief Lee Nygaard tracked his ex-girlfriend's vehicle 164 times and her new boyfriend's 64 times, falsely logging searches as investigations for a missing child and drug activity. He admitted jealousy motivated his actions. Sentenced to only 18 months probation — no criminal charges.
In United States v. Smith, the Fifth Circuit held that geofence warrants are categorically unconstitutional because they search everyone in an area rather than a specific suspect. The reasoning has direct implications for ALPR networks that similarly surveil all vehicles passing through an area without individualized suspicion.
An academic researcher who provided oversight for Flock's marquee study — claiming its technology helps solve 10% of crime — expressed serious reservations. The researcher said police data was 'too varied and incomplete' for meaningful statistical analysis.
Brittney Gilliam and her family, including a 6-year-old, were pulled from their car at gunpoint and handcuffed on hot asphalt in Aurora, CO. The ALPR matched their Colorado plate to a stolen Montana motorcycle. The city settled for $1.9 million in February 2024.
New Hampshire requires ALPR data to be deleted within 3 minutes unless connected to an active investigation — the most restrictive law in the nation. At least 17 states have ALPR-specific statutes, with Maine (21 days), Tennessee and North Carolina (90 days), and Arkansas (150 days) also imposing retention limits.
In Espanola, NM, an ALPR misread a plate digit and a 12-year-old was handcuffed. One month later, a 17-year-old honors student and quarterback was stopped at gunpoint on his way home from school after ALPR mistook his vehicle for one linked to armed robberies. Both families filed lawsuits.
A Frisco, TX officer manually entered a plate as 'AZ' instead of 'AR,' generating a stolen vehicle hit. A Black family heading to a basketball tournament was held at gunpoint. The police chief publicly admitted 'We made a mistake.'
An investigation into how Flock Safety expanded its ALPR network by marketing directly to HOAs and neighborhood groups, creating a sprawling surveillance infrastructure that feeds data to law enforcement with minimal oversight or public debate.
ALPR flagged Ali Badr's rental car as stolen after the rental company reported missed payments. Police released a K-9 that mauled his arm for over a minute while he was unresisting, with an officer pointing a gun at his face. Badr had at least three surgeries and reportedly lost use of his arm.
In Commonwealth v. McCarthy, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court became the first appellate court to recognize that ALPRs can constitute a Fourth Amendment search at sufficient scale. The court applied the 'mosaic theory,' holding that aggregated location data from plate readers can reveal intimate details of a person's life.
Brian Hofer, chair of Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission, was stopped on Thanksgiving after ALPR flagged their rental car as stolen — it had been recovered but the database was never updated. His brother was held at gunpoint 'execution style.' Settlement: $49,500.
An ALPR misread a '3' as a '7' on Denise Green's plate. Six officers drew guns including a shotgun, ordered her to kneel, and handcuffed her. The 'stolen' vehicle was a gray truck; she drove a burgundy Lexus. San Francisco settled for $495,000.