Thanks to the rise of AI, a new kind of surveillance camera has rapidly proliferated across the United States. Typically referred to as automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, they're most often mounted along roadways, where they log the movements of cars which pass through their field of vision. Though various companies offer them, the most well known come from Flock Security, and the company has consequently been a lightning rod for public opinion. Shocking exactly nobody, there has been widespread public backlash to cameras that track everyone, whether or not they've been suspected of a crime.

Although Flock cameras are often referred to as license plate readers, that's reductive. Reading license plates is their primary task, but they can be used to track just about anyone or anything. Even without a license plate, law enforcement officers can search for things such as, hypothetically, "green sedan with American flag bumper sticker," or, "pickup truck with paint scratches on left side and dirt bike in truck bed." Reducing Flock ALPRs to license plate readers is a bit like calling your own eyes "Engadget article readers" simply because that's what you're using them for at this particular moment. The company also offers AI surveillance cameras which do track individuals.

The issues with Flock Safety cameras are well documented: Flock has been plagued by security vulnerabilities, rampant misuse by law enforcement officers and AI malfunctions which land innocent people in trouble with the law. And once Flock cameras take root in a city, weeding them out can be nearly impossible. There are now over 100,000 ALPRs installed nationwide, with the vast majority coming from Flock.

Flock Security cameras are, like most smart devices, small computers. They run a modified version of Android and wirelessly transmit footage to a database, where it is cataloged using AI for searched natural language searches by anyone with access to the system. Flock contracts with cities, towns, neighborhoods and businesses.

In addition to Flock's infamous ALPRs, the company also offers AI security cameras, mobile security trailers, and  — just in case you're a creep looking to point an AI camera into someone's backyard  — quadcopter drones. All of them operate on the same principles. Just type what you're looking for, and the system will show footage of anything it thinks matches your description. This makes AI powered cameras like Flock's distinct from traditional surveillance or traffic cams, which require someone to manually look over footage in order to find a specific vehicle or individual.

The Flock network can be restricted to a contracted area, but many departments join a nationwide network. As the ACLU of Massachusetts pointed out, police as far away from the state as Texas can search its Flock footage. While Flock does not have a direct contract with federal law enforcement agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other Homeland Security agencies are often granted access to the system through data sharing programs with local police departments (a practice which began before Flock arrived on the scene). In Denver, the ACLU of Colorado obtained logs showing that local police had conducted over 1,400 searches on ICE's behalf as of August.

That's not to say the cameras never prove useful for crime-solving. Flock has helped to solve at least one murder case and to take down a vehicle smash-and-grab operation. But its AI-enhanced capabilities track everyone, innocent or not.

Flock vehemently insists that its cameras are secure. The truth is that Flock cannot seem to go very long without vulnerabilities becoming exposed. Many of the most critical exploits have been discovered by Benn Jordan, a musician and YouTuber with no formal background in cybersecurity research.

In December 2025, Jordan found that at least 70 Flock Safety cameras were exposed to the Internet and could be accessed through a commercial search engine. No password was required to view live footage of children at parks, couples having intimate arguments, and other moments people did not know were surveilled. Many exposed cameras belonged to Flock's Condor cameras which track people, not vehicles. Jordan was even able to record Flock's flippant response to his previous investigations onto a Flock Condor camera and then download the footage to include in his video.

That came after Jordan had already exposed numerous security holes in a November expose, many of which could be exploited with equally sophomoric techniques. With physical access to the outdoor cameras, Jordan and researcher John Gaines were able to press a physical button and connect to the camera over Wi-Fi, debug it with basic Android development tools, and gain root access  — even installing malware. There were also exposed USB ports vulnerable to a malicious USB drive. There were too many other findings to list, but Jordan's video is comprehensive.

Most tech companies invite information about critical exploits with bug bounty programs, or at least by crediting independent researchers. Flock Safety, by contrast, has responded by smearing security researchers including Jordan as "activist groups who want to defund the police, weaken public safety, and normalize lawlessness."

How intoxicating must it be, as a police officer, to gain access to the Flock network? Like Batman toward the end of The Dark Knight, you would instantly be able to spy on any individual, the entire city baring up its secrets to you with a few keystrokes. But unlike Batman, some police have used Flock to harass and stalk women, while Flock employees used footage of preschoolers to sell more cameras. That's because there are very few guardrails, if any, to prevent abuse. A warrant is rarely required for a database search, and there's no paperwork.

As reported this month by 404 Media, there have been dozens of documented instances in which cops have abused Flock to track the whereabouts of ex-girlfriends, current partners, and other individuals. In most cases, the stalking was only discovered when a victim searched their plate in HaveIBeenFlocked or a similar tool and discovered their whereabouts had been searched hundreds of times. That may sound bad, but it's worse than it sounds. Since the only known cases are those where the offending officer was caught and arrested or fired, the true scope of abuse is likely much larger. Flock told 404 Media that "15 incidents of abuse" had surfaced because of "the transparency and accountability features" built into its platform, adding that its Audit Assistance tool "proactively flags unintended use."

There have been issues inside of Flock itself, too. One particularly shocking report from 404 Media found that Flock employees had been watching children swimming in the pool and during gymnastics classes at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, and even showing those camera feeds to police departments as part of a sales demo. Flock responded belligerently, writing in part, "The employees being named online are well-intentioned employees who accessed a camera network with the city's explicit permission, as part of their job. They are now being called predators for it."

We can look to just one of the many cities Flock operates in to see how its cameras create issues, even without explicit abuse. In May of 2024, Denver, Colorado installed 111 cameras across the city. The contract was renewed in 2025 when Mayor Mike Johnston overruled a unanimous city council vote against the extension.

One Denver woman, financial advisor Chrisanna Elser, was stunned when Columbine police officer Sgt. Jamie Milliman knocked on her door and delivered a summons for theft. According to Milliman, she'd been caught on camera stealing a package from a front door. "You know we have cameras in that town. You can't get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing," the officer can be heard saying in Ring doorbell footage from the September 2025 incident. Elser was lucky. Her Rivian truck has cameras of its own, and she was able to deliver footage from the day of the alleged crime, proving she had not stopped while driving through the area from which the package was stolen. The charges were eventually dropped.

Others haven't been so lucky. Multiple Colorado drivers have been pulled over and treated as suspected criminals when Flock ALPRs mistook a number zero for a letter 'O', or vice versa. One driver told the local 9News he feels his safety is at risk because officers are alerted every time a Flock camera sees his vehicle. Police claimed they were unable to remove him from their hotlist.

After widespread protest, including a packed town hall in October attended by city council members and nationally known privacy advocates, Denver cancelled its Flock contract... and awarded it to Axon, a company which already provides body cameras to police departments.

With so many alarming issues around Flock Safety, it's hard to understand why these AI surveillance cameras keep cropping up. There are a few reasons, ranging from citizen disenfranchisement to restrictive Flock contracts.

While average citizens dislike the technology, especially those from marginalized groups most likely to be targeted by AI surveillance, they often have little to no say in the matter. Flock markets directly to law enforcement, and if you're a cop or pro-law-enforcement city official, it's easy to see why blanketing your locale in AI-powered cameras is a tantalizing prospect. Despite little evidence that Flock cameras actually reduce crime, the company markets its products as powerful crime-stopping and deterrence tools.

In Denver, Mayor Johnston defended his decision to retain Flock's services by claiming in a 9News interview that the cameras had aided in solving the murder of a transgender woman, Jax Gratton, whose body was found in the nearby town of Lakewood. The case had become a rallying cry for LGBTQ safety in the Denver area. But the mayor's claims were doubly false. Not only had Flock not assisted in the case, but no arrest had been made. Gratton's mother publicly demanded a forthcoming apology from the mayor.

Shooing Flock away is made more difficult by its ironclad contracts. When Dayton, Ohio and Evanston, Illinois wanted out of their Flock deals, they were unsure whether removing the cameras would constitute a breach of contract. Their solution? Both cities covered the Flock cameras with garbage bags. The only way to evoke a more heavy-handed metaphor would have been to cover them with lampshades.

To see whether any Flock cameras are lurking near you, you can use the map created by DeFlock, an open-source tool tracking the proliferation of ALPR cameras.