US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology

Early this year, my home city of Bend, Oregon, ended its contract with surveillance company Flock Safety, following months of public pressure and concerns around weak data privacy protections. Flock's controversial AI-powered license plate cameras were shut down, and its partnership with local law enforcement ended.

We weren't the only city to actively reject Flock cameras. Since the start of 2026, dozens of cities have suspended or deactivated contracts with Flock, labeling it a vast surveillance network. Others might not be aware that automated license plate readers, commonly referred to as ALPR cameras, have already been installed in their neighborhood.

Flock gripped news headlines late last year when it was under the microscope during widespread crackdowns by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Though Flock doesn't have a direct partnership with federal agencies (a blurry line I'll discuss more), law enforcement agencies are free to share data with departments like ICE, and they frequently do.

One study from the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington found that at least eight Washington law enforcement agencies shared their Flock data networks directly with ICE in 2025, and 10 more departments allowed ICE backdoor access without explicitly granting the agency permission. Many other reports outline similar activity.

Following Super Bowl ads about finding lost dogs, Flock was under scrutiny about its planned partnership with Ring, Amazon's security brand. The integration would have allowed police to request the use of Ring-brand home security cameras for investigations. Following intense public backlash, Ring cut ties with Flock just like my city did.

To learn more, I spoke to Flock about how the company's surveillance technology is used (and misused). I also spoke with privacy advocates from the American Civil Liberties Union to discuss surveillance concerns and what communities are doing about it.

What it means when Flock Safety sets up in your neighborhood

If you hear that Flock is setting up near you, it usually means the installation of ALPR cameras to capture license plate photos and monitor cars on the street.

Flock signs contracts with a wide range of entities, including city governments and law enforcement departments. A neighborhood can also partner with Flock -- for example, if an HOA decides it wants extra eyes on the road, it may choose to use Flock's systems.

When Flock secures a contract, the company installs cameras at strategic locations. Though these cameras are primarily marketed for license plate recognition, Flock reports on its site that its surveillance system is intended to reduce crime, including property crimes such as "mail and package theft, home invasions, vandalism, trespassing, and burglary." The company also says it frequently solves violent crimes like "assault, kidnappings, shootings and homicides."

Flock has recently expanded into other technologies, including advanced cameras that monitor more than just vehicles. Most concerning are the latest Flock drones equipped with high-powered cameras. Flock's "Drone as First Responder" platform automates drone operations, including launching them in response to 911 calls or gunfire. Flock's drones, which reach speeds up to 60 mph, can follow vehicles or people and provide information to law enforcement.

Drones like these can be used to track fleeing suspects. In practice, the key is how law enforcement chooses to use them, and whether states pass laws allowing police to use drones without a warrant -- I'll cover state laws more below, because that's a big part of today's surveillance.

It's important to note that not all cities or neighborhoods refer to Flock Safety by name, even when using its technology. They might mention the Drone as First Responder program, or ALPR cameras, without further details. For example, a March announcement about police drones from the city of Lancaster, California, doesn't mention Flock at all, even though it was the company behind the drone program.

How Flock uses tech to ID cars -- and people

Flock states on its website that its standard license-plate cameras cannot technically track vehicles, but only take a "point-in-time" image of a car to nab the license plate.

However, due to AI video and image search, contracted parties like local law enforcement can use these tools to piece together license information and form their own timeline of where and when a vehicle went. Adding to those capabilities, Flock also told Forbes that it's making efforts to expand access to include video clips and live feeds.

Flock's machine learning can also note details like a vehicle's body type, color, the condition of the license plate and a wide variety of identifiers, like roof racks, paint colors and what you have stored in the back. Flock rarely calls this AI, but it's similar to AI-recognition features you can find in the latest home security cameras

A Flock spokesperson told me the company has boundaries and does not use facial recognition. "We have more traditional video cameras that can send an alert when one sees if a person is in the frame, for instance, in a business park at 2 a.m. or in the public parks after dark."

By "traditional" cameras, Flock refers to those that capture a wider field of view -- more than just cars and license plates -- and can record video rather than just snapshot images.

The information Flock can access provides a comprehensive picture that police can use to track cars by running searches on their software. Just like you might Google a local restaurant, police can search for a basic vehicle description and retrieve recent matches that the surveillance equipment may have found. Those searches can sometimes extend to people, too.

"We have an investigative tool called Freeform that lets you use natural language prompts to find the investigative lead you're looking for, including the description of what a person's clothes may be," the Flock spokesperson told me.

Unlike red-light cameras, Flock's cameras can be installed nearly anywhere and snap vehicle ID images for all cars. There are Safe Lists that people can use to help Flock cameras filter out vehicles by filling out a form with their address and license plate to mark their vehicle as a "resident."

The opposite is also true: Flock cameras can use a hot list of known, wanted vehicles and send automatic alerts to police if one is found.

With Flock drones, these intelligent searches become even more complete, allowing cameras to track where cars are going and identify people. That raises additional privacy concerns about having eyes in the sky over your backyard.

"While flying, the drone faces forward, looking at the horizon, until it gets to the call for service, at which point the camera looks down," the Flock spokesperson said. "Every flight path is logged in a publicly available flight dashboard for appropriate oversight."

Yet unlike personal security options, there's no easy way to opt out of this kind of surveillance. You can't turn off a feature, cancel a subscription or throw away a device to avoid it.

And even though more than 45 cities have canceled Flock contracts amid public outcry, that doesn't guarantee that all surveillance cameras will be removed from the designated area.

When I reached out to the police department in Eugene, another city in Oregon that ended its Flock contract, they told me that, while there were concerns about certain vulnerabilities and data security requirements with the particular vendor, the technology itself is not the problem. "Eugene Police's ALPR system experience has demonstrated the value of leveraging ALPR technology to aid investigations … the department must ensure that any vendors meet the highest standards."

Does Flock track personal information? The devil is in the details

Flock's stance, as outlined in its privacy and ethics guide, is that license plate numbers and veh