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Coventina

(29,012 posts) Mon Nov 24, 2025, 06:53 PM Nov 24

How Cops Are Using Flock Safety's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists

It's no secret that 2025 has given Americans plenty to protest about. But as news cameras showed protesters filling streets of cities across the country, law enforcement officers—including U.S. Border Patrol agents—were quietly watching those same streets through different lenses: Flock Safety automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that tracked every passing car.

Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches on Flock Safety's servers, we discovered that more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches through Flock's national network of surveillance data in connection with protest activity. In some cases, law enforcement specifically targeted known activist groups, demonstrating how mass surveillance technology increasingly threatens our freedom to demonstrate.

Flock Safety provides ALPR technology to thousands of law enforcement agencies. The company installs cameras throughout their jurisdictions, and these cameras photograph every car that passes, documenting the license plate, color, make, model and other distinguishing characteristics. This data is paired with time and location, and uploaded to a massive searchable database. Flock Safety encourages agencies to share the data they collect broadly with other agencies across the country. It is common for an agency to search thousands of networks nationwide even when they don't have reason to believe a targeted vehicle left the region.

Via public records requests, EFF obtained datasets representing more than 12 million searches logged by more than 3,900 agencies between December 2024 and October 2025. The data shows that agencies logged hundreds of searches related to the 50501 protests in February, the Hands Off protests in April, the No Kings protests in June and October, and other protests in between.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/how-cops-are-using-flock-safetys-alpr-network-surveil-protesters-and-activists

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Law Enforcement Agencies that Ran Searches Corresponding with "No Kings" Rallies

Anaheim Police Department, Calif.
Arizona Department of Public Safety
Beaumont Police Department, Texas
Charleston Police Department, SC
Flagler County Sheriff's Office, Fla.
Georgia State Patrol
Lisle Police Department, Ill.
Little Rock Police Department, Ark.
Marion Police Department, Ohio
Morristown Police Department, Tenn.
Oro Valley Police Department, Ariz.
Putnam County Sheriff's Office, Tenn.
Richmond Police Department, Va.
Riverside County Sheriff's Office, Calif.
Salinas Police Department, Calif.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, Calif.
Spartanburg Police Department, SC
Tempe Police Department, Ariz.
Tulsa Police Department, Okla.
US Border Patrol

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How Cops Are Using Flock Safety's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists (Original Post) Coventina Nov 24 OP

Some Washington cities reconsider Flock traffic cameras as judge rules their data is public cbabe Nov 24 #1

cbabe

(6,013 posts)

1. Some Washington cities reconsider Flock traffic cameras as judge rules their data is public

Reply to Coventina (Original post)

Mon Nov 24, 2025, 08:05 PM

Nov 24

https://www.chronline.com/stories/some-washington-cities-reconsider-flock-traffic-cameras-as-judge-rules-their-data-is-public,391326

Some Washington cities reconsider Flock traffic cameras as judge rules their data is public

By Catalina Gaitán / The Seattle Times (TNS)

Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2025 11:04 am

Police in Redmond, Lynnwood and Skamania County have turned off their Flock Safety license-plate-reading surveillance cameras or delayed implementing them, as officials and residents express concerns about who can access the photos and data they generate. That unease, including over how federal immigration enforcement agencies may access the data, has intensified after a Skagit County Superior Court judge ruled this month the cameras’ pictures and information must be made public in accordance with state law.

In her Nov. 6 ruling, Judge Elizabeth Neidzwski said the cities of Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood could not deny an Oregon man’s public records requests for Flock photos and data because they qualify as public records and can’t be exempt from release under the state’s Public Records Act. It is not clear whether Stanwood or Sedro-Woolley intend to appeal Neidzwski’s ruling. Stanwood Mayor Sid Roberts and Sedro-Woolley’s City Administrator Charlie Bush declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

But the ruling has already had a chilling effect on some Washington jurisdictions’ desire for the technology and the potentially overwhelming number of public records it could one day burden them with stewarding.

…
For privacy advocates, the ruling heralds a long-desired reckoning by cities and police agencies in Washington, who can no longer ignore that Flock’s automated license plate readers track every vehicle — not just those linked to a crime, said Timothy Hall, a Yakima attorney representing Jose Rodriguez, the man who requested Stanwood’s and Sedro-Woolley’s Flock records.

… more …

(They don’t want us to know what they are up to.)

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