Flock Safety addresses privacy concerns about license plate reader cameras

Our Take

13News Now reports that Flock Safety is rolling out an audit tool meant to flag 'abnormal search behavior' by the police departments and agencies that use its ALPR network. It's a PR-friendly response to years of reporting on officers running personal favors, ICE-adjacent searches, and out-of-state fishing expeditions through Flock's system. But notice what the fix actually is: a company auditing its own customers after the searches have already happened, using rules it wrote and enforces at its own discretion.

An audit trail is not the same as a limit on collection. Flock cameras are still logging every plate that passes, on every street where they're installed, whether or not anyone is suspected of anything. Catching a rogue search after the fact doesn't undo the fact that a permanent, searchable record of your movements now exists for departments to query in the first place. Self-policing tools are the kind of thing companies roll out when they're trying to keep the underlying business model intact while quieting the headlines.

If you want to know whether this kind of camera is already sitting on your route to work or your kid's school, check our map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just read about it, see what you can do in your own city.