Flock Safety operates the largest private automatic license plate reader network in the United States, with cameras in more than 5,000 communities and 49 states. The company’s marketing emphasizes privacy, local control, 30-day data deletion, and a stated refusal to work with ICE.
The primary documents and investigative reporting below show that in practice the network has been used to track a woman seeking an abortion across state lines via more than 83,000 cameras; queried thousands of times for immigration enforcement, including by federal agents accessing jurisdictions that had not authorized federal sharing; left at least 60 cameras live-streaming on the public internet without authentication; and accessed using customer credentials harvested by infostealer malware and resold on Russian cybercrime forums.
Flock is now the subject of a formal U.S. House Oversight investigation, a Federal Trade Commission referral, a pending federal Fourth Amendment lawsuit, a class action under California’s ALPR Privacy Act, and state-level audits in Illinois, California, and Washington.
Sources and Reading Material
- Krishnamoorthi, R. and Garcia, R. (2025, 6 August) Letter to Garrett Langley, CEO, Flock Group Inc. U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Available at: https://krishnamoorthi.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/krishnamoorthi.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-08-06.garcia-krishnamoorthi-to-flock-re-lpr-tech-and-tracking.pdf
- Wyden, R. and Krishnamoorthi, R. (2025, 3 November) Letter to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson regarding Flock Safety cybersecurity practices. Office of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. Available at: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-krishnamoorthi-urge-ftc-to-investigate-surveillance-tech-company-on-negligently-handling-americans-personal-data
- University of Washington Center for Human Rights (2025, 21 October) Leaving the Door Wide Open: Flock Surveillance Systems Expose Washington Data to Immigration Enforcement. Available at: https://jsis.washington.edu/humanrights/2025/10/21/leaving-the-door-wide-open/
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (2025, December) EFF’s Investigations Expose Flock Safety’s Surveillance Abuses: 2025 in Review. Available at: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/effs-investigations-expose-flock-safetys-surveillance-abuses-2025-review
- Maass, D. (2025, 6 October) Flock Safety and Texas Sheriff Claimed License Plate Search Was for a Missing Person. It Was an Abortion Investigation. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Available at: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-missing-person-it
- Institute for Justice (2025, 5 February) Judge Rules Lawsuit Challenging Norfolk’s Use of Flock Cameras Can Proceed [Schmidt v. City of Norfolk]. Available at: https://ij.org/press-release/judge-rules-lawsuit-challenging-norfolks-use-of-flock-cameras-can-proceed/
- 404 Media (ongoing) Flock [topic page; investigative reporting by Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler]. Available at: https://www.404media.co/tag/flock/
- NBC News (2025, 18 September) Virginia police used Flock cameras to track driver 526 times in 4 months, lawsuit says. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/virginia-police-used-flock-cameras-track-driver-safety-lawsuit-surveil-rcna230399
- Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO / VPM News (2025, 7 July) The feds’ hidden immigration weapon: Virginia’s surveillance network. Available at: https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-07-07/vcij-immigration-enforcement-flock-safety-license-plate-readers-poggenklass
- Flock Safety (n.d.) Ensuring Local Compliance [company statement acknowledging undisclosed federal pilot programs with CBP and HSI]. Available at: https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/ensuring-local-compliance
