Flock Safety, an Authorized License Plate Reader surveillance system designed to improve public safety in communities across California, is facing investigations by local governments and civil liberties groups following reports of unauthorized federal access to its system data. Based in Atlanta, the company initially signed contracts with over 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. However, a misconfiguration issue regarding the access of surveillance data, which enabled access of California data to agencies nationwide, resulted in unauthorized federal systems tapping into the data. The action violated city policies and contracts with vendors, resulting in over 30 cities and counties either deactivating their Flock cameras or cancelling their contracts. 

The decision to cancel their contracts came from state-level officials who found that federal out-of-state agencies could access the license plate data. This pr

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office recently held a Board of Supervisors meeting on Feb. 24, where officials voted 3-2 to restrict the use of ALPR technologies, specifically the contract with Flock cameras. This decision impacts cities i

“The Board of Supervisors weighed the public safety benefits of ALPR cameras against privacy and legal concerns,” Rahdar said in an email. “They prioritized residents’ privacy, compliance with Senate Bill 34 and preventing unauthorized access. This action sets a precedent that holds technology vendors to a higher standard, and this decision reflects a careful balance between public safety and transparent use of data and technology. Public safety should never come at the cost of infringing on people’s fundamental rights.”

In addition to privacy and legal concerns, Chief Information Security Officer at Pomelo Care Puneet Thapliyal says the issue is not whether ALPR technology should exist, but rather the importance of its transparency and regulation.

“There are cases where the federal government got access to the Flock data without consent, and it’s a big issue,” Thapliyal said. “We should all be rallying against that kind of thing. But that doesn’t mean the technology itself is all bad. The technology has amazing use cases to improve public safety and keep our neighborhoods safe and secure.”

ALPR cameras are commonly used by law enforcement to track stolen vehicles and assist in criminal investigations. Flock technology has helped address over 700,000 crimes nationally and annually, including a 41% decrease in residential burglaries from 2023 to 2025 in Los Altos Hills and 66 arrests since 2022 in Santa Clara County. However, the growing use of these systems has cr

“From a cybersecurity and privacy standpoint, there is a data aggregation problem,” Sethi said. “Even though this seems minor and individually aggregated, thousands of data are retained for weeks, months or even a year. It builds a detailed map of individuals’ movements without any suspicion of wrongdoing.”

Flock Safety has maintained its standard 30-day period of data aggregation, before automatically and permanently deleting data unless it is a part of an active criminal investigation. This data is stored and encrypted in the cloud, and includes surveillance of license plates and vehicle “fingerprints” such as the model and color of the car. Building on those concerns, Thapliyal argues for stronger transparency measures and availability for the public to see who is requesting data logs.

“Any company that’s collecting this huge volume of personal data should also be for the public benefit, providing transparent access logs,” Thapliyal said. “It’s really important that if they are serving a city, a county, that they provide to the citizens the ability to check who has accessed or requested access to their data and protect against unauthorized access. Those should be very transparent and available to all citizens.”

Sethi describes Santa Clara County’s decision to cut ties with Flock Safety as a meaningful step toward addressing privacy concerns. However, she emphasizes the timing of the decisions, as well as the need for continuous accountability through regular audits of vendor access logs.

“The county acted after media reports exposed the issue, not because the internal oversight caught it, which is something more reactive rather than proactive,” Sethi said. “It’s an ongoing commitment to treat residents’ data with the same seriousness you treat any other public safety issue.”

However, according to Rahdar, removing ALPR cameras could also change how investigations are conducted, as Flock Safety takes credit for its cameras solving approximately 10% of reported crimes in the United States. While Thapliyal suggests that other technologies like drones could be used for surveillance, Rahdar weighs alternative methods and the current status of the cities under Santa Clara County without the ALPR cameras in use.

“With the ALPR cameras no longer in use, cities lose a tool that helped against crimes, which could slow some investigations,” Rahdar said in an email. “Police will likely rely more on traditional methods already in place, and cities are also exploring alternative vendors and technologies that meet the strict privacy and security standards, as well as integrating other types of cameras or data-driven tools to support investigations without compromising residents’ privacy.”

Ultimately, according to Rahdar, the decision to end ALPR cameras may present challenges for law enforcement. Sethi argues that the issue goes beyond the effectiveness of the technology, and into how the data should be controlled. She also heavily emphasizes the importance of establishing clear limits to ensure public safety and data sharing.

“Agencies should not be able to share that data with other agencies, especially federal ones without clear legal authorization,” Sethi said. “Because at the end of the day, good policing and protecting people and their rights are not at odds with each other. Both depend on the same thing. It all comes back down to trust, and if you don’t build trust through surveillance, you build it by being accountable to the people you serve.”

This story was originally published on El Estoque on April 4, 2026.