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.
41 articles · page 2 of 3 · RSS
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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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Residents voice concerns over Flock cameras at Santa Rosa Community Advisory Board Meeting
northbayvanguard.com
At a July 22 Community Advisory Board meeting, Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan presented on Flock cameras and ALPRs, and residents alongside the North Bay Organizing Project questioned auditing of outside agency searches, data retention, and crime-prevention metrics. The department says data is kept 30 days and not shared federally. Over 730,000 plate reads were logged in 30 days, with more than 300 California agencies granted access.
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Stow police cut ties with Flock Safety after officer allegedly used cameras to track someone he knows
boston.com
An internal affairs investigation found Stow, Massachusetts officer Jason Rogers ran vehicle searches through Flock Safety multiple times in 2024 and 2025 with no legitimate law enforcement purpose and queried the state criminal records database at least five times improperly. Rogers was placed on unpaid leave and faces criminal charges and termination proceedings. The chief ended the department's Flock contract, with the last camera removed in early August.
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Flock Safety overhauls rules following ANF investigations
atlantanewsfirst.com
Flock Safety announced it is cutting its default license plate data retention recommendation from 30 days to seven, adding an "evidence mode" cold storage option for active investigations. The company will require its machine learning audit tool, proactive account lockouts for abnormal search behavior, mandatory case codes, and multi-factor authentication. The changes follow reporting on more than a dozen officers disciplined or arrested for personal misuse, including stalking partners.
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Despite 'New' Updates, Flock's Creepy Cameras Remain Major Civil Liberties Threat
aclu.org
The ACLU assesses Flock Safety's announced operational changes, including a reduction in default data retention from 30 days to seven days with an "Evidence Mode" exception, local control over which offenses other agencies may search for, mandatory search reasons, and wider rollout of an audit tool. It argues most measures repeat earlier interventions that officers circumvented and that the audit tool has never been independently evaluated.
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6 more Ga. police department employees under investigation over alleged Flock camera misuse
wrdw.com
Savannah Police placed four officers and two civilian employees on administrative leave after an internal audit found searches unrelated to law enforcement, including queries about acquaintances and family members. One officer allegedly gave an outside agency access to the department's Flock system. All six cases went to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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In one California town, Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police
businessinsider.com
Public records obtained from the Roseville, California police department show that of 1,427 Flock alerts flagging vehicles as stolen or felony-related in 2023 and 2024, a department analysis found 71% involved misread plates. Records document missed vehicles, blurry images, and delayed alerts, with repeated complaints to Flock. Flock attributed problems to Roseville's atypical camera setup; state lawmakers called for a reliability review.
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Inside the growing police use and misuse of Flock's license-plate reader cameras
cnn.com
CNN documented a pattern of officers across multiple states searching Flock's network for personal reasons. Milwaukee internal affairs found an officer had used the system to track a romantic partner's location 124 times and that partner's ex 55 times. Flock's chief executive pointed to a new audit-assistance tool that flags abnormal use.
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License Plate Reader Policy (Flock Safety)
flocksafety.com
The vendor's own published policy, included here as a primary source. It states that customers own the data their cameras collect, that records are hard-deleted on a rolling 30-day basis by default but adjustable by customer request, that customers decide whom to share with, and that Flock uses under one percent of images for machine learning.
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More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints
eff.org
EFF's review of Flock search logs found police running license plate queries for purposes far outside criminal investigation. School police in Buford, Georgia logged more than 375 searches to verify student residency between January 2025 and March 2026, over half of all their ALPR searches. Twenty-six agencies used the system on noise complaints, some querying thousands of camera networks.
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Woman wrongfully arrested in deadly I-4 crash speaks out after charges dropped
wesh.com
Lindsey Isaacs spent 13 days in jail after Florida Highway Patrol accused her of causing a fatal I-4 crash, citing a Flock license-plate reader that captured her tag three miles from the scene two minutes before the collision. Her attorney used time-distance analysis and vehicle inspection to show she was not involved. Prosecutors dropped all charges and arrested another woman driving a maroon Durango.
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Flock Safety ALPR Camera Installation Project (Notice of Exemption)
ceqanet.lci.ca.gov
A primary-source state filing. The City of Santa Rosa posted a CEQA Notice of Exemption on 3 April 2026 for installing a Flock camera and solar panel on an existing traffic signal or streetlight pole in the public right-of-way, on behalf of the Santa Rosa Police Department, on the grounds that no ground disturbance or new infrastructure is involved.
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Traffic Violation! License Plate Reader Mission Creep Is Already Here
eff.org
Georgia State Patrol cited a motorcyclist in December 2025 for holding a phone, with the ticket reading "CAPTURED ON FLOCK CAMERA." Flock has said publicly that its ALPR system is not used for traffic enforcement, but its partner program now lists six traffic-enforcement technology companies, and public records show speed cameras connected to its network.
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Cameras in Sonoma Are Watching You
sonomasun.com
A detailed account of the 16 ALPR cameras installed around the City of Sonoma's perimeter in 2023 for roughly $50,000. The cameras record plate numbers, vehicle color and type, and whether a plate is present. Police Chief Brandon Cutting, one of three certified administrators, says federal agencies cannot reach the data and that outside requests require administrator approval and are logged.
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Joplin officer no longer employed after alleged misuse of license plate tracking system
kctv5.com
A Joplin, Missouri police officer left the department amid an internal affairs investigation into misuse of the Flock license plate reader system, allegedly searching one plate roughly 395 times over 14 months while citing only "DWI" or "Warrants" without case numbers. Activist group Deflock Joplin says its analysis found the user accounted for about 25% of departmental Flock queries and questions the contract's approval and missing written policy. Police pledged monthly audits and cited cases solved with the system.
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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
Records obtained from 31 Washington law enforcement agencies show at least eight enabled direct data sharing of their Flock networks with U.S. Border Patrol during 2025, while audits indicate Border Patrol also had apparent access to networks of at least ten departments that never authorized it. Researchers documented searches run on behalf of ICE, out-of-state searches including a Texas abortion investigation, and discrepancies that obscure the true scope of sharing.
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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 and Texas Sheriff Claimed License Plate Search Was for a Missing Person. It Was an Abortion Investigation.
eff.org
Records obtained by EFF show Johnson County, Texas deputies opened a "death investigation" of a "non-viable fetus" after a woman's self-managed abortion, collected evidence of it, and asked prosecutors about charging her. A sergeant ran two Flock ALPR searches logged as "had an abortion, search for female," spanning up to 83,345 cameras nationwide, contradicting the sheriff's and Flock's claims it was a welfare check.
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California police illegally share license plate reader data with ICE and Border Patrol
calmatters.org
Records obtained by Oakland Privacy showed California agencies breaking SB 34 more than 100 times in a single month by running plate searches for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, including the LAPD and the San Diego, Orange, and Riverside county sheriffs. Of 491,000 queries analyzed, more than 64,000 gave only a vague reason such as "investigation."