Articles
What the Flock?
An index of reporting, court records, and public filings showing what happens beyond Flock's public-safety claims. These are the documented problems, mistakes, and abuses that can be easy to miss when the story comes only from the vendor or the agencies using the cameras.
12 articles · RSS
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Flock Camera Hacked, Data on Thousands of Vehicles Retrieved
texasscorecard.com
A hacker group calling itself stegan0gram physically removed and reverse engineered a Flock camera, sharing methods and data with media. Wired reported the device logged 21 days of activity covering about 50,200 vehicles, and that its software detects people in images, though no facial recognition was found. Flock called the tampering illegal and pointed to its vulnerability disclosure process. Several Texas cities have recently cancelled or paused Flock contracts.
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Flock Cameras Are The New Patriot Act
thefederalist.com
An opinion piece traces the funding and legal lineage of automated license plate readers to post-9/11 surveillance programs, noting DHS grant channels and fusion centers that finance local purchases. It cites a Norfolk lawsuit showing one driver logged 526 times in four months, a California class action over federal and ICE access through a described side door, and an August 2026 study finding vehicle theft fell about 11 percent with no detectable gain in recoveries.
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Wisconsin’s Flock Fight Just Became a Fourth Amendment Case
pjmedia.com
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued Waukesha County and 11 municipalities, asking a court to rule that police need a warrant before searching Flock Safety's vehicle location database. The complaint says Muskego police ran over 300 searches in one month while outside agencies ran more than 900,000 searches involving Muskego's nine cameras. Stevens Point suspended its cameras, and other municipalities are reconsidering contracts.
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Manvel City Council Votes Unanimously To End Flock Safety Contract
texasscorecard.com
Manvel, Texas council members voted 6-0 to cancel the city's Flock Safety contract and cover its 16 license plate reader cameras within 48 hours. Mayor Dan Davis said 535 outside agencies retained access to the city's camera network after 149 were cut. A Flock representative said camera data helps train the company's AI. Police reported 138 department searches in a monthly audit with no sign of misuse.
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Fusion Center Ran Flock Searches on Behalf of Feds, Santa Ana Records Show
couriercalifornia.com
Logs released by Santa Ana police show the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center ran more than 27,000 searches of the city's Flock ALPR network over six months, including at least eighty on behalf of federal agencies such as the FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals, IRS and Forest Service, plus an agency in Washington state. California law bars sharing ALPR data with federal and out-of-state agencies. The logs omit usernames and case numbers, and no promised efficacy audit exists.
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Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
wired.com
WIRED reconstructed code Flock Safety served from its own login pages, describing an AI tool called OS Investigate that ships with 69 prewritten prompts and 45 data tools. The prompts let officers find drivers by movement patterns, identify vehicle associates, and search by physical description, drawing on plate scans, arrest records, dispatch logs, and commercial identity databases. Flock says the product is still in development.
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Thomas Massie Moves to Defund Flock Camera Networks
yahoo.com
Rep. Thomas Massie announced plans to introduce a bill conditioning federal DHS, DOJ, and highway grants on jurisdictions not deploying Flock Safety or similar mass license plate reader systems. No bill text exists yet. The piece also describes Rep. Tim Burchett's Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act, a defeated ALPR funding amendment, and the Surveillance Accountability Act requiring warrants for facial recognition.
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A federal judge ruled Norfolk's Flock surveillance cameras don't invade people's privacy – yet
whro.org
Judge Mark Davis granted summary judgment to Norfolk on 27 January 2026, holding that the city's 176 Flock cameras and 21-day retention window do not amount to an unconstitutional search. He warned the analysis could change as systems expand, writing that in Norfolk "the answer is: not today." The plaintiffs, represented by the Institute for Justice, plan to appeal.
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How Cops Are Using Flock Safety's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists
eff.org
EFF analyzed more than 12 million Flock Safety ALPR searches logged by over 3,900 agencies between December 2024 and October 2025, obtained through public records requests. More than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches citing protest-related reasons, including "No Kings" rallies, immigration protests, and Direct Action Everywhere actions. Roughly 20 percent of all searches reviewed listed vague reasons such as "investigation" or "suspect."
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Leaving the Door Wide Open: Flock Surveillance Systems Expose Washington Data to Immigration Enforcement
jsis.washington.edu
University of Washington researchers traced three routes by which federal immigration agents reached Washington ALPR data. At least eight local agencies enabled direct sharing with Border Patrol; agents ran thousands of searches on at least ten more departments' networks without explicit authorization; and a single county sheriff's search listing "ICE" as its reason touched 89 networks.
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Flock Safety's Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe
eff.org
A Texas sheriff's office searched more than 83,000 Flock cameras to locate a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion, and records showed over 4,000 immigration-related lookups by state and local police with no formal ICE agreement in place. EFF argues that search-term blocking, case-number requirements, and audit alerts are easily defeated by vague or reused justifications.
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Judge Rules Lawsuit Challenging Norfolk's Use of Flock Cameras Can Proceed
ij.org
The Institute for Justice announced that a federal judge declined to dismiss its Fourth Amendment challenge to Norfolk's 172-camera Flock network, citing Carpenter v. United States on warrantless location tracking. Plaintiffs Lee Schmidt and Crystal Arrington argue that a city-wide record of their daily movements is a search requiring a warrant.