Flock Safety loses ground as 10+ US localities drop its cameras

Privacy, misuse and immigration

The objections vary. Cases of misuse have fueled them: an officer in Brentwood, Missouri, was accused in August of using Flock cameras to stalk his ex-wife, and an East Texas officer was sentenced to prison in September for stalking his ex-girlfriend and her family. Ithaca, New York, cited reports that federal agencies including ICE and the ATF used query results from Flock's plate-reader data to target immigrants. At the state level, Florida barred plate readers from state highways and Texas paused state funding for Flock.

Flock says police use its technology daily to solve serious crimes and find missing people. The company says customers own and control their data, that it does not sell data and that it has no contract with ICE. In August it cut the default data retention period for new customers from 30 days to seven and began requiring a case code for searches.

Procurement and oversight

Adam Schwartz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said police often adopt Flock with little council oversight and residents often do not know cameras are going up. South Windsor, Connecticut, switched its cameras on last year without public warning or a vote, then voted in October to remove them.

Not every city is leaving. Cleveland extended its contract but restricted immigration-related searches and limited database access to its own police. It is also reviewing bids from other vendors. Tatiana Rice of the Future of Privacy Forum said communities want public safety benefits without sacrificing civil liberties, and surveillance technology is likely to stay a political flashpoint.