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Flock Safety’s network of roughly 90,000 vehicle-surveillance cameras is facing renewed scrutiny after a false alert tied to partial license plate matching reportedly led Minnesota police to stop and arrest a driver in a Jaguar Land Rover media fleet vehicle. According to the account, a stolen New Jersey manufacturer plate was entered into Flock’s system as 34 DTM, omitting smaller middle digits and causing the platform to match a broader 34 ## DTM pattern. Flock said the system operated as configured and that law enforcement wanted partial-plate matching so officers could receive alerts even when plate data is incomplete.
The incident has intensified criticism of Flock’s broader surveillance model, which uses Falcon automatic license plate reader cameras and Condor pan-tilt-zoom cameras to capture vehicle images and metadata, transmit them over cellular networks, and store searchable records in Flock’s cloud platform on Amazon Web Services. Privacy advocates and former law enforcement officials warn that shared cross-agency access, AI-assisted searches, insider misuse, and person-tracking capabilities can reconstruct individuals’ movements and turn bad data into dangerous police encounters. Public opposition has also grown in some communities, including Saranac Lake, where residents pushed officials to cancel a Flock contract and remove cameras.
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Public backlash in Saranac Lake led residents to pressure officials to cancel a Flock contract and remove installed cameras, reflecting broader opposition to the surveillance network.
Flock's CEO issued an apology after referring to privacy advocates as "terrorists," amid broader criticism of the company's surveillance practices and police use of its camera network to search for people as well as vehicles.
In response to criticism of the false alert, Flock said its machine learning system worked as configured and argued that police wanted partial-plate matching so officers could receive alerts when only incomplete plate data was available.
A stolen plate was reportedly entered into Flock's system as only "34 DTM," causing alerts on vehicles matching the broader "34 ## DTM" pattern, including a Jaguar Land Rover media fleet vehicle. Police in Minnesota tracked multiple similar vehicles and one driver, identified in reporting as Joel Feder, was arrested before the plate-entry issue was recognized.
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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.
Jul 16, 2026
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi have called for a federal investigation into Flock Safety, a company operating the largest network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the United States, citing concerns over negligent handling of Americans’ personal data and inadequate cybersecurity measures. The lawmakers allege that Flock Safety fails to enforce cybersecurity best practices, such as mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA), leaving customer accounts vulnerable to compromise. Reports indicate that at least 35 Flock customer accounts have been stolen by hackers, and the company’s voluntary authentication does not natively support phishing-resistant MFA. These security lapses have raised fears that hackers or foreign actors could gain access to sensitive location data on millions of Americans, and that law enforcement agencies can improperly share access to Flock’s systems. The controversy surrounding Flock Safety extends beyond cybersecurity, as privacy advocates and local communities have raised alarms about the potential for abuse and invasive tracking through the company’s ALPR network. Some communities have already succeeded in removing Flock cameras, motivated by concerns over wrongful detentions, privacy violations, and the use of Flock data in sensitive investigations, such as those involving abortion patients and undocumented immigrants. Lawmakers argue that Flock’s practices expose Americans to significant risks and have urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate, referencing previous FTC enforcement actions against companies that failed to implement adequate authentication controls.
Jun 29, 2026
Police departments across the United States have used Flock Safety's automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to monitor protest activity, according to research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Over a ten-month period, more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies conducted protest-related searches using Flock Safety's national network, targeting events such as the "No Kings" demonstrations, the 50501 movement, and "Hands Off!" protests. The EFF's findings highlight that law enforcement agencies sometimes focused on specific activist groups, raising significant privacy and civil liberties concerns. The report also notes that Flock Safety has lost police department customers following revelations of its technology being used to track undocumented immigrants and individuals seeking abortions. Flock Safety's ALPR systems are designed to scan and photograph every license plate that passes by, storing the data for later searches. While these systems have been credited with aiding criminal investigations, their widespread deployment has sparked debate over the balance between public safety and individual privacy. The growing use of ALPRs, especially by law enforcement to track protestors and other groups, has intensified scrutiny from privacy advocates and the public regarding the potential for mass surveillance and misuse of collected data.
Jun 29, 2026