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Via ZeroHedge
Flock Safety, the startup that blanketed America in automated license plate readers (ALPRs), announced Thursday that it is dialing back its expansive platform. The company is slashing data retention periods, restricting immigration-related searches, and spinning off its AI-driven analytics arm into a separate entity — concessions wrung out by a sustained, bipartisan grassroots revolt that has already driven more than 50 agencies to cancel their contracts.
Not even (paid?) damage control by Bari Weiss’ The Free Press could salvage the situation.
According to CEO Garrett Langley’s announcement, the platform is undergoing several major structural shifts: data retention periods are being slashed, immigration-related searches are being restricted, and its AI-driven analytics arm is being spun off into a separate entity.
That feature exists for a reason. 404 Media found Flock’s lookup tool aided at least 4,000 immigration-related searches between Trump’s inauguration and May 2025 — including queries run in states that had banned local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE.
The policy shift also comes on the heels of a glaring security failure. Langley disclosed that a glitch discovered in December 2025 left some of Flock’s AI-powered pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras exposed to the public internet. “For a brief period of time, third parties were able to access live streams and footage from those cameras,” Langley admitted, attributing the breach to a vendor’s network configuration error.
Meanwhile, earlier this month a North Carolina police officer was arrested for allegedly using Flock’s plate readers to track her boyfriend’s ex-wife. The Washington Post reported it found nearly 50 instances of officers charged or accused of using the cameras for unauthorized purposes — many of them tracking current or former romantic partners or family members. Four Richmond County Sheriff’s Office employees have been arrested and fired since June for personal searches. Six Savannah Police Department officers are also implicated.
With the ‘Get the Flock Out’ movement in full swing, more than 50 agencies and municipalities have canceled, suspended, rejected, or simply unplugged their Flock contracts since January, according to a tracker maintained by DeFlock. In July, Republican members of Congress filed at least two bills aimed at severely restricting the systems.
Others haven’t waited for legislation. A Guardian investigation documented 33 destruction incidents across 23 states — cameras smashed, sawed off their poles, or hauled away entirely. One activist told AFP he has personally disabled roughly 30 devices and posts instructional videos to some 500,000 Instagram followers, while the DeFlock America Facebook group has grown past 600,000 members crowdsourcing camera locations.
Fusion centers are now monitoring the surveillance state’s opponents. Intelligence bulletins obtained by 404 Media through public records requests show law enforcement tracking anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram accounts, flagging “extensive and ongoing chatter on social media” about methods to “physically destroy Flock LPR cameras,” and instructing departments to increase patrols around camera sites.
Flock operates roughly 120,000 cameras nationwide, recording the plate numbers, makes, models, and bumper stickers of practically every car that passes. Thousands of law enforcement agencies across 49 states can search that data and share it seamlessly across jurisdictional lines.
The movement against Flock doesn’t break down cleanly along party lines. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, civil liberties organizations like the ACLU, and ordinary residents at local town halls have converged on the company. The backlash unites left-leaning advocates concerned about over-policing and civil rights with right-leaning advocates concerned about constitutional privacy and government overreach.
As one surveillance-law scholar told the Associated Press, the “growing community backlash” aimed specifically at Flock has captured a profound cultural shift: people don’t want their daily movements tracked.
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Flock use with court issued warrant for a specific vehicle/person, good for a limited time and area is 1 thing. But the wide scale abuse we have already seen, and use like a Big Brother tool, is a major mountain to climb for public acceptance and trust now.