What is Flock?
It’s just a camera?
No. Flock’s main product is their network of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). They are able to identify passing objects and record video. Stringing together the vast network of cameras and AI processing (enabling plain language searches) turns them into a robust surveillance network. Police departments then share this data with other agencies across the country. Once it is out of your police department’s hands, data control is lost.
The 4th amendment protects you from unreasonable searches and requires a warrant. In order to obtain your location history from your cellular provider, law enforcement requires a warrant. But Flock bypasses this legal requirement by deploying their cameras and enabling agencies to share info with each other across the country. One camera tracking your movement doesn’t create an unconstitutional search, but the network does.
But I don’t things that are illegal, I don’t care if my movements are tracked
You don’t get to decide what looks suspicious tomorrow. Just because you’re not doing anything wrong today doesn’t mean you won’t be watched tomorrow. License plate cameras like Flock don’t know your intentions—only your movements. A trip to a protest, a friend’s house in a “high-crime” area, or even a misread plate can flag you as “suspicious.” As history has shown, when governments or third parties gain unchecked surveillance powers, they’re eventually used against people who weren’t doing anything wrong—until someone decided they were. For example, until early in 2025, ALPRs weren’t used for tracking immigrants, legal or otherwise, but now they are, despite policies prohibiting it.
Aren’t there cameras everywhere?
Traffic cameras have existed for years, but have the resolution of a potato and serve to detect when cars are at a light. This data is not stored, processed, or shared with hundreds of agencies. Private businesses and government buildings have had security cameras for decades, but those aren’t interconnected into a searchable web across the country.
Does Flock share data with ICE?
Yes. Flock claims to have stopped working with ICE, but courts can compel Flock to hand over data to ICE (assuming Flock is being honest in the first place). If your police department claims to not share their data with ICE, they may still share it anyway. Even if they don’t share it directly, the agencies with whom they share their data could share it with ICE. If they share with another federal agency, ICE could easily gain access through that.
The deployment of Flock cameras threatens local control with corporate interests. Often these cameras are installed with no public input, and no policies around use or data retention.
When shared with other agencies, or even uploaded to the internet, local Police departments lose control of their data. Flock user account logins were found for sale on hacking websites as Flock does not require users to enable security features.
You may trust your local police department, but when this power is automatically granted, what happens when you don’t trust the next person in that role?
Why is there no transparency when installing these? Why is there no opportunity for public input on how your tax dollars are spent?
Don’t these cameras reduce crime?
No. If cameras stopped crime, we would never see video footage of crimes. Instead, Flock cameras lead to a high rate of false alerts (20%+), leading to wrongful arrests. There is no independent research that ALPRs reduce crime.
What kind of abuses can occur with Flock cameras?
A Texas police officer used Flock to conduct a nationwide search to locate a woman who had an abortion. A Kansas police chief tracked his ex girlfriend 164 times using Flock. A Denver police seargant accused a woman of stealing a $25 package and summoned her to court based off faulty Flock data, and told her “you know we have cameras in that town. You can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing.”
Citizens across the aisle are resisting Flock’s deployment in their cities. Various municipalities have forced their local agencies to cancel their contracts and remove Flock cameras. It has become clear that it’s easier to remove them than trust Flock to be responsible with your data.
What is Flock up to next?
Peter After emerging from the startup incubator connected to Peter Thiel, Flock quickly began going after government contracts. In October of 2025, Amazon’s Ring doorbell cameras announced it would partner with Flock to share footage with law enforcement. Flock is launching microphones that will listen for sounds of “human distress”. They are working with cities to begin piloting drones to respond to 911 calls.
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