LAPD Ends Flock Safety Contract After False Plate Match and Privacy Concerns

The Los Angeles Police Department is allowing its three-year contract with Flock Safety to expire, halting use of the company’s automated license plate reader services over what officials described as serious concerns about civil liberties, privacy, data collection, security, and data sharing. The move follows mounting scrutiny of Flock’s nationwide camera network, which has faced criticism over data security lapses, reported weak authentication controls for police access, and allegations that federal agencies accessed or used Flock-related systems in ways that raised policy and oversight concerns.

Pressure intensified after a documented false-positive incident in which police detained The Drive reviewer Joel Feder for about an hour after Flock flagged a loaner Range Rover as linked to stolen plates. Authorities said they had tracked the vehicle for days through the Flock app, but the alert was later tied to an LAPD report that incompletely recorded a stolen New Jersey manufacturer plate and to Flock’s difficulty interpreting the plate’s smaller-format digits. Jaguar Land Rover ultimately confirmed the vehicle and plates were legitimate, underscoring concerns that errors in plate recognition and data handling can lead to wrongful stops and continued exposure for motorists across agencies using the system.