Exposed: Flock Safety

Flock Safety operates the largest network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the United States, with over 4 million cameras deployed in neighborhoods, parking lots, and roadways across 4,000+ communities. These cameras automatically photograph every vehicle that passes, capturing the license plate, vehicle make, model, color, and direction of travel, creating a comprehensive movement tracking database. Flock Safety markets to both law enforcement and homeowners associations (HOAs), meaning private citizens can now deploy surveillance infrastructure that feeds into police databases. The company processes over 2 billion vehicle scans per month, building a searchable national map of vehicle movements without requiring warrants or individual suspicion. Civil liberties organizations warn that Flock Safety is building a mass surveillance network through the back door by marketing cameras as neighborhood safety tools while aggregating the data into a system that tracks the movements of every vehicle in covered areas. The combination of private deployment, law enforcement data sharing, and AI analytics creates a surveillance capability that would be unconstitutional if deployed by the government directly.