Why Flock License Plate Readers Are So Controversial

Bay Curious - KQED

This episode of Bay Curious explores the controversy surrounding Flock Safety's license plate reader technology in the Bay Area, examining i

Key takeaways

• Flock Safety's automated license plate readers (ALPRs) collect detailed vehicle data, including images and identifying features, creating a searchable database of movements across cities.
• While law enforcement claims the technology reduces crime—especially car break-ins—evidence linking Flock directly to crime reduction is weak.

Main topics

• Flock Safety's license plate reader technology
• Surveillance and privacy in urban communities

Notable quotes

"These cameras will go up in the neighborhoods where people of color live, and we can be damn sure that this information will be taken by the feds and shared with ICE."

Conclusion

The debate over Flock Safety's license plate readers underscores a growing tension between public safety initiatives and

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:01) From KQED. The Speaker 1 (0:08) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 7 (0:19) The new Speaker 1 (0:23) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City. All new vibe. Speaker 4 (0:33) On the California Report magazine, we bring you stories about Californians helping out their neighbors, like a little store in Oakland where shoppers can walk out with one item for free. I mean, opening up a shop and giving away stuff for free, my first customers thought I was insane. Still here, so it seems to be working. I'm Sasha Koka. You can hear more Community Connection stories on the California Report magazine podcast. Speaker 8 (1:02) The internet can be strange, absurd, terrifying, even surprisingly human. Each week on Close All Tabs from KQED, we cover how the digital world is reshaping how we live and who we are. Speaker 2 (1:14) This technology is so good, there is nothing that you can do to tell that you're not looking at an AI. Speaker 5 (1:21) They're doing anything they can to learn about you, including sometimes spying on you. Listen to Close All Tabs wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (1:31) In April, Bay Area residents crowded into the downtown Oakland administration building for what was supposed to be a routine budget meeting for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. But it was unusually packed because of one meaty agenda item, approving a contract extension for flock security cameras. Resident after resident came to the mic during public comment. Having Flock cameras will Speaker 7 (1:57) not keep us safe. These cameras will go up in the neighborhoods where people of color live, and we can be damn sure that this information will be taken by Speaker 5 (2:07) the feds and shared with ICE. Flock is a controversial surveillance company that runs AI-powered license plate readers. I Speaker 2 (2:14) was raised in San Leandro for 25 years. I own property in San Leandro, and I've been robbed 24 times. Recently, they put Flock cameras in San Leandro. And it seems to be that they haven't been breaking in. So please vote yes on renewing the contract with the flock cameras. On Speaker 5 (2:33) one side of the debate, law enforcement and their supporters, who say the cameras reduce crime and improve public safety. On the other, residents and advocates who are concerned about a creeping surveillance state, an erosion of privacy, and the security issues that flock has been exposed for. Speaker 2 (2:50) Good evening. I urge you to reject Flock's $854,000 contract extension. This isn't a camera system. It's a mass surveillance network that will track every single one of us, making a searchable database that tracks our movements. You guys say you care about immigrant communities, but this system puts them directly in danger. Speaker 5 (3:05) The budget meeting lasted hours. And in the end, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in favor of extending the contract. Protests broke out. Speaker 7 (3:18) Since Speaker 5 (3:19) that April meeting, the flock contract was extended in Alameda County again through the end of 2027 to the tune of $2.4 million. And it's against this backdrop that listener Dennis Riley wrote in to Bay Curious. Speaker 2 (3:35) I've seen flock cameras all around the city, all around the Bay Area, and there's really no escape from them. I don't really know what information they record, how much I'm documented on camera. Speaker 5 (3:48) He wants to know what flock is doing with the information they record. Speaker 2 (3:53) Who are they selling it to? What are they recording? What is this information being used for? It really unsettles me how much I'm being tracked by private companies. Speaker 5 (4:03) To answer this one, we turn to Morgan Sung, a tech journalist and the host with KQED's Close All Tabs podcast, who recently took on this topic. Speaker 8 (4:12) Automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, have been rapidly rolled out by cities and communities around the country, with Flock Safety's tech at the lead. Before we get any deeper into this, we need to talk about what Flock actually is and how it was adopted so quickly. Let's get into the origin story. Speaker 8 (4:34) So Flock Safety is based in Atlanta, Georgia. It operates a whole host of surveillance devices, cameras, drones, and importantly for this story, ALPRs. Back in 2017, this Georgia Tech alum, Garrett Langley, noticed the uptake in break-ins around his Atlanta neighborhood. Police told him that grainy surveillance camera footage was actually unhelpful, and what they really needed to find perpetrators were license plates. So Garrett called up two of his college buddies. Together, they worked on a prototype camera that could record and share what he called evidence, not just footage. Here he is speaking to Forbes last year. Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:13) it's pretty wild. At the end of 17, we were sitting at my dining room table in Atlanta, building cameras by hand. And now, today, we're in a roughly 100,000 square foot facility, building cameras, building trailers, building drones. all right here in Georgia, which is pretty fun. Is Speaker 8 (5:33) certainly one way to put it. This entrepreneurial, neighborly concern has grown into an operation of at least 90,000 cameras nationwide, scanning over 20 billion license plates per month. Over a thousand private businesses have also installed the cameras, adding to Flock's massive surveillance database. In Oakland, the push for installing Flock's ALPRs was fueled by local frustration over bipping. You know, breaking into a parked car and looting whatever's inside. Here's Rosalyn Romero, a reporter for the independent local news outlet The Oakland Side. She's been covering Flock's safety cameras for the region. Bipping Speaker 3 (6:12) or car break-ins were also understandably making a lot of residents angry. The city took action around 2024. The Oakland Police Department eventually signed a contract with Flock Safety for cameras to be installed throughout the city, primarily on freeway entrances and exits. And right now, today, there are 293 Flock cameras in Oakland, specifically automated license plate readers. Speaker 8 (6:45) Flock's ALPRs go way further than the standard traffic cam that tickets drivers for speeding. The cameras automatically capture the license plate of every car that drives by, as well as six to 12 images of other identifying information. All of this is used to create what Flock calls Speaker 3 (7:02) a vehicle fingerprint. The make and the model of that vehicle, if there is a scrape on the bumper or if there are bumper stickers on the car, Flock keeps a database of all of that information of every car that passes by the ALPRs. And that database can be used by the law enforcement agencies that contract with Flock to investigate Speaker 8 (7:27) crimes. Flock will send officers alerts when a camera captures a vehicle that's been marked stolen or wanted. Or the police can search the database to trace a specific vehicle's movements across the country. Car break-ins in San Francisco have plummeted since 2023. But whether flock has any part in that is dubious. The city started cracking down on car break-ins long before it adopted flock cameras. Still, supporters say that Flock is necessary to prevent crime and catch those who do it. Now, the company says its devices are not equipped to track individual people. But recent expansions have residents concerned. Speaker 3 (8:07) Flock also has cameras that are called pan, tilt, and zoom cameras. Those cameras, which are currently being used by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. can be used to track pedestrians in addition to vehicles. All Speaker 8 (8:28) of the data collected by flock cameras around the country is shared and stored in a massive aggregated database, which can be accessed by anyone in the network. That means that police in Texas can hunt a woman who travels out of state for an abortion, or that ICE agents can ask local police in Illinois to track undocumented families. Both of these scenarios are real. They've already happened. Privacy activists and civil liberties groups