1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

Flock Safety is a mass surveillance tech company that makes automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology. Municipalities across the U.S. have adopted Flock contracts to surveil their communities. Flock’s ALPRs make up a network of over 90,000 cameras that log license plates between fixed locations, functionally tracking the movement of all vehicles between those fixed points. And now, Flock’s ALPR systems are able to log the unique fingerprint of a vehicle, so they are not only dependent on a license plate as a unique identifier but have become like facial recognition for vehicles. This vehicle fingerprint includes things like color, make, model, scratches, dents, bumper stickers, and any visually-unique features on a vehicle.  Flock is not the only surveillance vendor in its class, companies like Motorola and Axon also offer fixed-location ALPR contracts of a similar sort. ALPRs are also often mounted to police vehicles, which scan plates that the police vehicle is near, but vehicle-mounted ALPRs are different and beyond the scope of this guide.  Although this guide focuses on kicking Flock out, ALPR technology specifically and mass surveillance products, more generally, pose pernicious threats to civil society. Communities must take steps to defend against this class of technologies—more on that at the end of this guide. Flock often bundles its location-logging ALPR systems with microphone systems placed in public areas, supposedly for the purpose of triangulating gunshots. Flock’s own marketing is open about these microphones listening in on public spaces for other sounds, like human voices. Gunshot triangulators are notorious for giving false positives (https://www.wired.com/story/ai-gunshot-detection-accuracy-san-jose-nyc/)—fireworks, construction, cars backfiring, and other intense plosive sounds trigger the system. Not only does this make people feel less able to express their thoughts freely in public spaces, but it also increases policing and puts communities of color at greater risk of racist police violence. Throughout the country, including in Kentucky, Oklahoma. and Virginia Flock cameras are placed more in Black neighborhoods than in white ones. Flock approaches police departments and gives them talking points and coaching to sell the argument for its technology to local elected officials. Municipalities then sign contracts, often without weighing the harms to our privacy and civil liberties or understanding legal obligations within the contracts, the known harms of Flock, the ethical and technical failures of the company. This process often happens quickly, without much transparency, and in ways that seem to sneak around public input. As a result, Flock may already be surveilling your streets. It is often up to friends, neighbors, and local residents to get Flock out of each community it has been implemented in.  Systems of mass surveillance are of great use to those who wish to know the whereabouts and movement patterns of protestors, dissidents, victims of stalking and abuse, and people seeking forms of medical care targeted by an openly patriarchal and white nationalist government.  Flock used by ICE and topursue a person across state lines for seeking reproductive care. Flock’s own information security is shoddy: it was found that live feeds from its cameras were accessible to anyone with the correct URLs (Flock’s CEO has called those who oppose his product and acts against the wishes of elected officials including illegally reinstalling cameras. Even with limited transparency around police use of Flock, it has been found that in over a dozen cases, cops use Flock to stalk to ex-partners and others unrelated to policing. Unsurprisingly, the FBI has been seeking access to ALPR systems like It must be remembered that the FBI has a storied history of harassing and targeting dissidents, from Dr. Martin Luther King to the Black Panthers toIndigenous dissenters (https://The FBI is also part of Donald Trump’s “Department of Justice,” which is now largely a weapon that Trump uses to attack his personal enemies, including a woman he sexually assaulted Mass surveillance is not only a symptom of a failing society, but it’s also an accelerant of a society’s decline. Related to surveillance but not Flock locally, there was an instance where a person called the police on a woman for “stealing” about $20 worth of cheese curds from a farm stand. The person reported it because she had seen the woman taking the cheese curds on a surveillance camera, noticing the woman only put $5 into a till instead of $25. A cop looked up the accused person’s address in the DMV database and arrested her at her home. During the arrest, the accused person told the officer that she had already gone back and put additional cash in the till of the farm stand, because she had forgotten to do it initially. The police officer called the person who had reported the supposed theft, and it was confirmed: yes, it seems the accused woman had come back and put the money in the till. This story is illustrative of how surveillance is a symptom of an angry, disempowered, and untrusting society that wants armed forces and policing to solve its problems, when perhaps, the problem was something else entirely—or perhaps the problem wasn’t even there. Importantly, surveillance is also what enabled the harm.   “Systems of mass surveillance are of great use to those who wish to know the whereabouts and movement patterns of protestors, dissidents, victims of stalking and abuse, and people seeking forms of medical care targeted by an openly patriarchal and white nationalist government.” Surveillance is also a false solution: it doesn’t communities safer. Investing in communities by increasing public funding and resources to address the root causes of violence would create meaningful safety. Not to mention, the United States is the biggest weapons dealer in the world drug conflicts of Latin and wars everywhere else. The U.S. is the only country that has more guns than and those guns make our public spaces less safe and make us less trusting of one another. The U.S. is known globally for its school shootings. Those in power refuse to address the core causes of violence in this country, so officials are easily enticed by false solutions peddled by tech profiteers. Flock is one of these false solutions. Flock’s mass surveillance is sold to municipalities to prevent gun violence, but it instead treats entire populations as if they are criminals, watched by the state. Flock and ALPRs are a starting point to fight back against surveillance: these are deeply unpopular technologies that most people despise across much of the political spectrum This means that Flock can be fought successfully. Once Flock or other ALPRs have been expelled from your streets, there are other important steps to ensure privacy and data protections, community defense against mass surveillance, and a public safety that means real, holistic care, not state violence disguised as a safety solution. This is how we, FlockOff! Ithaca, got rid of Flock.