“You may’t get a breath of recent air … with out us realizing.”
Because of the rise of AI, a brand new form of surveillance digital camera has quickly proliferated throughout the USA. Sometimes known as automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, they’re most frequently mounted alongside roadways, the place they log the actions of automobiles which cross by way of their sight view. Although varied corporations provide them, probably the most well-known come from Flock Safety, and the corporate has consequently been a lightning rod for public opinion. Surprising precisely no one, there was widespread public backlash to cameras that monitor everybody, whether or not or not they have been suspected of against the law.
Though Flock cameras are also known as license plate readers, that is reductive. Studying license plates is their main job, however they can be utilized to trace nearly anybody or something. Even with out a license plate, legislation enforcement officers can seek for issues resembling, hypothetically, “inexperienced sedan with American flag bumper sticker,” or, “pickup truck with paint scratches on left aspect and dust bike in truck mattress.” Decreasing Flock ALPRs to license plate readers is a bit like calling your individual eyes “Engadget article readers” just because that is what you are utilizing them for at this specific second. The corporate additionally presents AI surveillance cameras which do monitor people.
The problems with Flock Security cameras are properly documented: Flock has been affected by safety vulnerabilities, rampant misuse by legislation enforcement officers and AI malfunctions which land harmless folks in bother with the legislation. And as soon as Flock cameras take root in a metropolis, weeding them out could be practically not possible. There at the moment are over 100,000 ALPRs put in nationwide, with the overwhelming majority coming from Flock.
How do Flock cameras work, and what do they do?
Flock Safety cameras are, like most good units, small computer systems. They run a modified version of Android and wirelessly transmit footage to a database, the place it’s cataloged utilizing AI for searched pure language searches by anybody with entry to the system. Flock contracts with cities, cities, neighborhoods and companies.
Along with Flock’s notorious ALPRs, the corporate also offers AI safety cameras, cellular safety trailers, and — simply in case you are a creep seeking to level an AI digital camera into somebody’s yard — quadcopter drones. All of them function on the identical ideas. Simply kind what you are searching for, and the system will present footage of something it thinks matches your description. This makes AI powered cameras like Flock’s distinct from conventional surveillance or visitors cams, which require somebody to manually look over footage as a way to discover a particular automobile or particular person.
The Flock community could be restricted to a contracted space, however many departments be a part of a nationwide community. Because the ACLU of Massachusetts identified, police as far-off from the state as Texas can search its Flock footage. Whereas Flock doesn’t have a direct contract with federal legislation enforcement businesses, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and different Homeland Safety businesses are sometimes granted entry to the system by way of information sharing packages with native police departments (a practice which started earlier than Flock arrived on the scene). In Denver, the ACLU of Colorado obtained logs displaying that native police had performed over 1,400 searches on ICE’s behalf as of August.
That is to not say the cameras by no means show helpful for crime-solving. Flock has helped to solve at the very least one homicide case and to take down a automobile smash-and-grab operation. However its AI-enhanced capabilities monitor everybody, harmless or not.
Flock cameras have been riddled with safety flaws
Flock vehemently insists that its cameras are safe. The reality is that Flock can not appear to go very lengthy with out vulnerabilities changing into uncovered. Most of the most important exploits have been found by Benn Jordan, a musician and YouTuber with no formal background in cybersecurity analysis.
In December 2025, Jordan discovered that at the very least 70 Flock Security cameras have been uncovered to the Web and could possibly be accessed by way of a industrial search engine. No password was required to view dwell footage of youngsters at parks, {couples} having intimate arguments, and different moments folks didn’t know have been surveilled. Many uncovered cameras belonged to Flock’s Condor cameras which monitor folks, not autos. Jordan was even in a position to report Flock’s flippant response to his earlier investigations onto a Flock Condor digital camera after which obtain the footage to incorporate in his video.
That got here after Jordan had already uncovered quite a few safety holes in a November expose, lots of which could possibly be exploited with equally sophomoric methods. With bodily entry to the outside cameras, Jordan and researcher John Gaines have been in a position to press a bodily button and hook up with the digital camera over Wi-Fi, debug it with fundamental Android improvement instruments, and acquire root entry — even putting in malware. There have been additionally uncovered USB ports susceptible to a malicious USB drive. There have been too many different findings to record, however Jordan’s video is complete.
Most tech corporations invite details about crucial exploits with bug bounty packages, or at the very least by crediting unbiased researchers. Flock Security, against this, has responded by smearing security researchers together with Jordan as “activist teams who need to defund the police, weaken public security, and normalize lawlessness.”
Cops have misused Flock cameras
How intoxicating should it’s, as a police officer, to achieve entry to the Flock community? Like Batman towards the top of The Darkish Knight, you’ll immediately have the ability to spy on any particular person, the complete metropolis baring up its secrets and techniques to you with a number of keystrokes. However in contrast to Batman, some police have used Flock to harass and stalk girls, whereas Flock workers used footage of preschoolers to promote extra cameras. That is as a result of there are only a few guardrails, if any, to forestall abuse. A warrant is never required for a database search, and there isn’t any paperwork.
As reported this month by 404 Media, there have been dozens of documented situations wherein cops have abused Flock to trace the whereabouts of ex-girlfriends, present companions, and different people. Generally, the stalking was solely found when a sufferer searched their plate in HaveIBeenFlocked or the same device and found their whereabouts had been searched a whole lot of instances. Which will sound unhealthy, nevertheless it’s worse than it sounds. For the reason that solely recognized circumstances are these the place the offending officer was caught and arrested or fired, the true scope of abuse is probably going a lot bigger. Flock advised 404 Media that “15 incidents of abuse” had surfaced due to “the transparency and accountability options” constructed into its platform, including that its Audit Help device “proactively flags unintended use.”
There have been points inside Flock itself, too. One notably surprising report from 404 Media discovered that Flock workers had been watching kids swimming within the pool and through gymnastics courses on the Marcus Jewish Neighborhood Heart of Atlanta, and even displaying these digital camera feeds to police departments as a part of a gross sales demo. Flock responded belligerently, writing partly, “The workers being named on-line are well-intentioned workers who accessed a digital camera community with the town’s specific permission, as a part of their job. They’re now being known as predators for it.”
Flock cameras preserve getting harmless folks in bother
We are able to look to simply one of many many cities Flock operates in to see how its cameras create points, even with out specific abuse. In May of 2024, Denver, Colorado put in 111 cameras throughout the town. The contract was renewed in 2025 when Mayor Mike Johnston overruled a unanimous metropolis council vote in opposition to the extension.
One Denver girl, monetary advisor Chrisanna Elser, was surprised when Columbine police officer Sgt. Jamie Milliman knocked on her door and delivered a summons for theft. Based on Milliman, she’d been caught on digital camera stealing a package deal from a entrance door. “You understand now we have cameras in that city. You may’t get a breath of recent air in or out of that place with out us realizing,” the officer could be heard saying in Ring doorbell footage from the September 2025 incident. Elser was fortunate. Her Rivian truck has cameras of its personal, and he or she was in a position to ship footage from the day of the alleged crime, proving she had not stopped whereas driving by way of the world from which the package deal was stolen. The fees were eventually dropped.
Others have not been so fortunate. A number of Colorado drivers have been pulled over and handled as suspected criminals when Flock ALPRs mistook a quantity zero for a letter ‘O’, or vice versa. One driver advised the native 9News he feels his security is in danger as a result of officers are alerted each time a Flock digital camera sees his automobile. Police claimed they have been unable to take away him from their hotlist.
After widespread protest, together with a packed town hall in October attended by metropolis council members and nationally recognized privateness advocates, Denver cancelled its Flock contract… and awarded it to Axon, an organization which already offers physique cameras to police departments.
Why do cities preserve giving contracts to Flock?
With so many alarming points round Flock Security, it is laborious to grasp why these AI surveillance cameras preserve cropping up. There are a number of causes, starting from citizen disenfranchisement to restrictive Flock contracts.
Whereas common residents dislike the expertise, particularly these from marginalized teams most likely to be targeted by AI surveillance, they usually have little to no say within the matter. Flock markets on to legislation enforcement, and in the event you’re a cop or pro-law-enforcement metropolis official, it is simple to see why blanketing your locale in AI-powered cameras is a tantalizing prospect. Regardless of little proof that Flock cameras really cut back crime, the corporate markets its merchandise as highly effective crime-stopping and deterrence instruments.
In Denver, Mayor Johnston defended his choice to retain Flock’s providers by claiming in a 9News interview that the cameras had aided in fixing the homicide of a transgender girl, Jax Gratton, whose physique was discovered within the close by city of Lakewood. The case had grow to be a rallying cry for LGBTQ security within the Denver space. However the mayor’s claims have been doubly false. Not solely had Flock not assisted within the case, however no arrest had been made. Gratton’s mom publicly demanded a forthcoming apology from the mayor.
Shooing Flock away is made harder by its ironclad contracts. When Dayton, Ohio and Evanston, Illinois needed out of their Flock offers, they have been not sure whether or not eradicating the cameras would represent a breach of contract. Their answer? Each cities covered the Flock cameras with rubbish baggage. The one method to evoke a extra heavy-handed metaphor would have been to cowl them with lampshades.
To see whether or not any Flock cameras are lurking close to you, you need to use the map created by DeFlock, an open-source device monitoring the proliferation of ALPR cameras.
