Block Flock!

What is Flock?

Flock Safety is an $8.4 billion company, funded by Peter Thiel of Palantir and others, that markets automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and other mass surveillance technology to police departments, private businesses, and homeowners associations. Flock and other private companies’ surveillance apparatus is rapidly growing to encompass drones, ALPRs for schools, biometrics, facial recognition technology, and AI-powered “predictive policing” tools.

Photo by Tony Webster via Flickr

What are automatic license plate readers (ALPRs)?

ALPRs are high-speed AI-enabled cameras with image-processing software. They are operated by Virginia law-enforcement agencies to surveil motorists and pinpoint their location.
The images or videos collected by ALPRs can capture the license plate, make, model, color, occupants, bumper stickers, and other unique information.
ALPRs collect real-time data on every traveler and store that information in cloud databases. The data is pooled together into regional sharing systems or aggregated by private companies from a variety of sources and accessed via subscription or otherwise. The data can be stored indefinitely.

Dangers of Flock (and all ALPR devices)

ALPRs threaten privacy rights. They are a digital dragnet that captures information about millions of people who have committed no crimes.
ALPR abuse has been prevalent and well documented. ALPRs have been used to surveil people because of their political views, sexual orientation, immigration status, intimate partners, women seeking reproductive healthcare, protesters, and Black and Brown people.
ALPR databases have been accessed by federal agencies, including ICE, DHS, ATF, CBP, and other out-of-state law enforcement and government agencies.
There are also countless documented incidents of ALPR errors: false positives, misreads, and other error.
ALPRs surveil Black communities more intensely than white ones. A recent study of ALPRs in Hampton Roads shows that majority Black neighborhoods experience ALPR surveillance at 4 times their population share compared to majority White neighborhoods and the disparity rises to 7 times in highly segregated Black neighborhoods.
From February to June of 2025, RPD permitted ATF to use its ALPR database for immigration enforcement without permission.
In 2025, RPD used ALPRs to surveil protesters and activists during the No Kings rallies.

Flock cameras, represented on the map below by blue dots, are more likely to be found in neighborhoods that are majority Black, low income or both. Concentrations of Black residents are represented in purple, while poverty rates are in red. Source: Flock cameras in Hampton Roads surveil Black communities more intensely than white ones, CNU study says

Data security concerns

Getting access to Flock Data is easy. When federal agents accessed Richmond’s data, all the federal agents needed was a single law enforcement agent in the national network to agree to sharing their access.
Dozens of Flock “Condor” video cameras were left exposed to the open internet, allowing anyone to view live, unencrypted footage of public spaces—including playgrounds and shopping centers—without a password.
Millions of license plate records and police searches were posted online after law enforcement agencies failed to properly redact data.
Hackers have targeted individual law enforcement officer logins (often lacking multi-factor authentication) to gain access to the Flock system.
Flock Safety is a for-profit company. We cannot trust surveillance tech companies who profit from data about us.
There is no meaningful accountability for ALPR abuse by law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement is effectively accountable to no one. They police themselves.

Photo by Eric C. Vento

DSA’s position

We oppose mass surveillance for the following reasons:

The serious and significant implications on our safety
The increasing abuse by law enforcement and government
The disproportionate impacts on minority and immigrant communities
The potential this technology has to become another driver of mass incarceration
The growing costs of this new system on taxpayers
The unrestrained access to an immense amount of highly sensitive data that ALPRs provide to state and federal law enforcement and private companies