In 2025, Flock Safety reported more than 20 billion vehicle scans per month, and as the Flock Safety camera network expands across the country, millions of Americans will continue to be recorded and potentially tracked simply going about their lives.
While cameras on the roadway aren’t necessarily new, Flock cameras and other newer cameras feature automatic license plate recognition capabilities to instantly snap pictures of drivers’ plates for later processing.
The main problem isn’t that Flock Safety cameras take pictures of cars’ license plates. Rather, it’s what happens to those pictures afterward. Instead of providing a feed of footage and images that an investigator would have to manually search through, Flock turns vehicles into searchable data assisted by artificial intelligence.
Investigators can use a license plate or vehicle description to track where and when a vehicle was detected by the Flock network. What once would have simply recorded a car passing can now create a digital record of its movements across multiple locations.
At first, this ability to search through data quickly and efficiently may seem harmless and maybe even beneficial to the public. Flock cameras can help investigators locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects and even piece together the events surrounding a crime.
However, the same technology that can help find a stolen car can also be used to find a person even if they’ve done nothing wrong.
When the system can trace where a vehicle has been, the question becomes how far we are willing to let that search go and how can we protect innocent people from potentially corrupt or overreaching authorities?
That question became a reality in Texas, where a sheriff’s deputy used Flocks license plate reader software to search over 83,000 automatic license plate reader cameras throughout the Flock Safety network to find a woman who had a self-administered abortion in Texas. Cameras were even searched in states where abortion is protected.
When the officer searched through the Flock system for her, they were prompted to give a reason for the search. The reason listed according to 404 Media was, “had an abortion, search for female.”
What makes this particularly concerning is what happened before the search was conducted. The safeguard implemented by Flock Safety did not require the officer to obtain a warrant or any sort of approval before accessing the Flock system. Rather, the system relied on the officer to provide a plausible reason for the search.
Flock Safety advertises these prompts and audit logs to prevent misuse. But that requirement is just not the same as requiring an officer to first demonstrate probable cause to a judge. In this case, the officer was able to track the person down without anyone reviewing the request or verifying that the reason for the search was valid.
If it’s not already clear, a system like this opens the door to endless possibilities of misuse.
Someone with access to the Flock Safety network could potentially track and stalk an ex-partner. An officer has done this. Someone could use Flock to track a romantic rival. An officer has allegedly done this. Someone could enter a false justification to mask why they are trying to track someone. An officer in South Carolina has done this.
These ideas that Flock Safety could be abused simply aren’t hypothetical anymore. These are real examples of what can happen when an incredibly powerful surveillance network is in the hands of individuals without meaningful oversight. As Flock Safety continues to expand their camera coverage the amount of information available to search through will only grow larger.
Now just imagine if that same network were used to track people because of who they associate with, where they go, what they do, or what political ideologies they support. This may sound extreme. However, the technology is there, and it does not know the difference between a criminal and a political enemy. It simply provides a platform to search where a vehicle has been.
The danger is not only that flock is being used this way today. It is that we are allowing the infrastructure to continue to be built that will make it possible tomorrow. Every new Flock camera adds another piece to the safety network capable of tracking and recording every vehicle that passes through.
Then as the network grows it becomes even harder for someone to travel through their community without leaving behind a record of their movements. A person does not even have to be suspected of anything. They just have to drive by a Flock Safety camera and that data is stored for up to 30 days unless otherwise requested. Further breaching that individual’s privacy.
Today, Flock Safety is composed of a network of cameras that are used to find missing people and solve crimes. However, if left unchecked it could develop into a detrimental monster that would devour the livelihood of every American.