You’ve probably seen them mounted on poles along highways: Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers. But calling them just “plate readers” undersells what they actually do. These cameras track a lot more than your license plate.
Flock’s AI-powered cameras can identify vehicles by make, model, color, bumper stickers, roof racks, paint scratches — even the stuff in your truck bed. Law enforcement can search for things like “green sedan with American flag bumper sticker” and get matches from the database. The company also sells AI surveillance cameras, mobile security trailers, and quadcopter drones, all running the same search-and-identify platform.
There are now over 100,000 ALPRs installed across the US, the vast majority from Flock. And the data doesn’t stay local. Many police departments join a nationwide network, meaning an officer in Texas can search footage from Massachusetts. ICE has also accessed the system through data-sharing agreements with local police — in Denver alone, local cops ran over 1,400 searches on ICE’s behalf as of August.
The privacy concerns are well documented. Security vulnerabilities have been found. Officers have misused the system. AI misidentifications have sent innocent people into trouble with the law. And once a city installs Flock cameras, getting rid of them is surprisingly difficult.
That’s not to say they’ve never helped solve crimes — they have. But the trade-off between public safety and mass surveillance is getting harder to ignore as these cameras multiply. If you live in a city with Flock cameras, there’s a good chance your movements are being logged whether you’ve done anything wrong or not.
