Flock Cameras Monitor Extra Than Your License Plate, And They’re Spreading Quick

Due to the rise of AI, a brand new sort 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 vehicles which move by their visual view. Although varied corporations provide them, essentially the most well-known come from Flock Safety, and the corporate has consequently been a lightning rod for public opinion. Surprising precisely no person, there was widespread public backlash to cameras that observe everybody, whether or not or not they have been suspected of against the law.

Though Flock cameras are sometimes called license plate readers, that is reductive. Studying license plates is their major activity, however they can be utilized to trace nearly anybody or something. Even and not using a license plate, regulation enforcement officers can seek for issues similar to, hypothetically, “inexperienced sedan with American flag bumper sticker,” or, “pickup truck with paint scratches on left facet 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 gives AI surveillance cameras which do observe people.

The problems with Flock Security cameras are properly documented: Flock has been suffering from safety vulnerabilities, rampant misuse by regulation enforcement officers and AI malfunctions which land harmless individuals in bother with the regulation. And as soon as Flock cameras take root in a metropolis, weeding them out will be practically inconceivable. There are actually over 100,000 ALPRs put in nationwide, with the overwhelming majority coming from Flock.

Flock Safety cameras are, like most good gadgets, 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, cell 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 on the lookout 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 with a view to discover a particular automobile or particular person.

The Flock community will 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 regulation enforcement businesses, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and different Homeland Safety businesses are sometimes granted entry to the system by knowledge 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 exhibiting 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 no less than one homicide case and to take down a automobile smash-and-grab operation. However its AI-enhanced capabilities observe everybody, harmless or not.

Flock vehemently insists that its cameras are safe. The reality is that Flock can’t appear to go very lengthy with out vulnerabilities changing into uncovered. Lots 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 no less than 70 Flock Security cameras have been uncovered to the Web and may very well be accessed by a business search engine. No password was required to view reside footage of kids at parks, {couples} having intimate arguments, and different moments individuals didn’t know have been surveilled. Many uncovered cameras belonged to Flock’s Condor cameras which observe individuals, not autos. Jordan was even in a position to file 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 may very well be exploited with equally sophomoric strategies. 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 primary Android growth instruments, and acquire root entry  — even putting in malware. There have been additionally uncovered USB ports weak 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 essential exploits with bug bounty packages, or no less than by crediting impartial researchers. Flock Security, against this, has responded by smearing security researchers together with Jordan as “activist teams who wish to defund the police, weaken public security, and normalize lawlessness.”

How intoxicating should it’s, as a police officer, to realize 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, your complete metropolis baring up its secrets and techniques to you with a couple of keystrokes. However not like Batman, some police have used Flock to harass and stalk girls, whereas Flock staff used footage of preschoolers to promote extra cameras. That is as a result of there are only a few guardrails, if any, to stop abuse. A warrant isn’t required for a database search, and there is not any paperwork.

As reported this month by 404 Media, there have been dozens of documented situations through which cops have abused Flock to trace the whereabouts of ex-girlfriends, present companions, and different people. Most often, the stalking was solely found when a sufferer searched their plate in HaveIBeenFlocked or the same software and found their whereabouts had been searched tons of of occasions. Which will sound dangerous, but it surely’s worse than it sounds. For the reason that solely identified instances 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 informed 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 software “proactively flags unintended use.”

There have been points within Flock itself, too. One notably stunning report from 404 Media discovered that Flock staff had been watching youngsters swimming within the pool and through gymnastics lessons on the Marcus Jewish Neighborhood Middle of Atlanta, and even exhibiting these digital camera feeds to police departments as a part of a gross sales demo. Flock responded belligerently, writing partially, “The workers being named on-line are well-intentioned staff who accessed a digital camera community with town’s express permission, as a part of their job. They’re now being known as predators for it.”

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 express abuse. In May of 2024, Denver, Colorado put in 111 cameras throughout 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 shocked when Columbine police officer Sgt. Jamie Milliman knocked on her door and delivered a summons for theft. In keeping with Milliman, she’d been caught on digital camera stealing a package deal from a entrance door. “You recognize we have now cameras in that city. You possibly can’t get a breath of contemporary air in or out of that place with out us understanding,” the officer will 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 the realm from which the package deal was stolen. The costs 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 informed 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 identified privateness advocates, Denver cancelled its Flock contract… and awarded it to Axon, an organization which already offers physique cameras to police departments.

With so many alarming points round Flock Security, it is laborious to grasp why these AI surveillance cameras hold cropping up. There are a couple 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 regulation enforcement, and when you’re a cop or pro-law-enforcement metropolis official, it is easy to see why blanketing your locale in AI-powered cameras is a tantalizing prospect. Regardless of little proof that Flock cameras really scale 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 companies 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 change into 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 tougher by its ironclad contracts. When Dayton, Ohio and Evanston, Illinois wished out of their Flock offers, they have been not sure whether or not eradicating the cameras would represent a breach of contract. Their resolution? Each cities covered the Flock cameras with rubbish luggage. The one approach 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 should use the map created by DeFlock, an open-source software monitoring the proliferation of ALPR cameras.