Municipalities across the United States have voted to cancel, reject, or disarm Flock Safety’s automatic license plate readers as residents raise concerns about mass surveillance, privacy, and data sharing.
Since the start of 2026, approximately 23 city councils have voted to cancel, not renew, reject, or deactivate Flock’s ALPRs in their jurisdictions. ALPRs, used by police departments to locate vehicles that may be stolen or involved in a crime, have been around since the turn of the century.
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However, unlike license plate readers of the past, Flock and similar companies’ ALPRs photograph and identify every vehicle that passes by, whether it is involved in a police investigation or not.
According to Flock’s website, over 120,00 ALPRs have been installed across the U.S. However, activist group Deflock puts that number closer to 125,000 ALPRs mapped throughout the country.
Flock initially launched in 2017, selling its AI-powered camera and audio detection systems to local and state governments for law enforcement to better respond to crimes, but the products quickly spread to cover entire metropolitan areas. The company says the technology helped recover stolen vehicles, locate missing children, and assisted investigators in thousands of criminal cases.
But opposition has intensified this year as residents and civil liberties organizations have questioned how long data is retained, who can access it, and whether information collected for local policing could ultimately be shared more broadly with federal authorities.
According to Deflock, about 23 cities have bucked contracts with flock or disabled their APLRs since January, and roughly 98 have done the same since 2021.
Among the cities that canceled their contracts with Flock was Harrisonburg, Virginia, when the city council voted July 20 to end its agreement with Flock, citing residents’ concerns that the ALPRs violated their Fourth Amendment rights and jilted community trust in law enforcement. Less than 20 miles away, the Elkton town council followed Harrisonburg’s lead.
Other communities, including Framingham, Massachusetts, and Saranac Lake, New York, have voted to decline contracts following months of public opposition centered on surveillance, transparency, and data-sharing policies.
COMMUNITIES FEAR FLOCK CAMERAS’ SAFETY PROMISE IS TROJAN HORSE FOR MASS SURVEILLANCE
Not every community considering ending a Flock contract has abandoned ALPRs altogether. In several jurisdictions, officials have instead chosen to deactivate cameras while they work with Flock to ensure privacy needs are met.
Flock executives have emphasized that municipalities contractually own the data collected by ALPRs, adding that the typical rollover schedule is 30 days. Additionally, Flock said police departments can set their own data retention schedules and choose whether or not they share ALPR data with other agencies, including the federal government. Flock maintains that it is committed to protecting residents’ privacy.
