Why It Matters
Flock Safety presents itself as a crime-fighting tool. But the evidence shows it creates new problems while solving few — and the costs fall on every resident, not just those targeted by police.
What Flock Safety actually does
Flock Safety installs pole-mounted cameras at roadway chokepoints. Each camera automatically photographs every passing vehicle, extracting the license plate, vehicle make, model, color, and direction of travel. This data is uploaded to Flock's cloud platform, where it is stored and made searchable by any law enforcement agency with access.
The key word is every. These cameras do not activate when a suspected criminal drives by. They photograph every vehicle, every time. If you commute through SLO County, your movements are being logged, stored, and made available to police — without a warrant, without suspicion, and without your knowledge.
SLO County deployed Flock cameras through the Sheriff's Department. No public vote was held. No independent privacy impact assessment was published. Residents were not meaningfully consulted.
This is not just a local problem
Grover Beach PD's Flock data is shared with over 300 law enforcement agencies statewide.
Every plate captured by a Grover Beach camera is stored in Flock's cloud and is accessible to hundreds of agencies across California — from the LAPD to Alameda County to the California Department of Corrections. A camera installed to fight local crime becomes a node in a statewide surveillance network the moment it goes live.
In June 2025, CalMatters reported that law enforcement agencies across Southern California illegally shared ALPR data with federal immigration enforcement — including ICE and Border Patrol — in direct violation of California's SB 34, which prohibits sharing ALPR data with out-of-state and federal agencies. The same data-sharing infrastructure that SLO County is plugged into was used for those illegal transfers.
SLO Tribune: Flock cameras found around SLO County amid privacy concernsThe three core problems
Mass Surveillance Without Consent
Flock cameras indiscriminately photograph every vehicle that passes, building a detailed record of where you go, when, and how often — regardless of whether you have ever been suspected of a crime.
- Flock Safety's Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras capture every passing vehicle and store that data for up to 30 days by default — sometimes longer depending on agency contracts.
- The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches. Comprehensive, warrantless location tracking of innocent people contradicts that protection, as the Supreme Court recognized in Carpenter v. United States (2018).
- In San Luis Obispo County, residents can barely drive anywhere without their movements being logged. The network of cameras creates a de facto grid that maps daily life.
- Flock data can be accessed by hundreds of law enforcement agencies through data-sharing agreements that residents are never informed about. Your data may be shared with agencies across the state or country.
- Unlike traditional investigations that target suspects, ALPR systems operate in reverse — they collect data on everyone first, then search it later. This is mass surveillance, not targeted policing.
Dangerous False Identifications
Officers have drawn weapons on innocent people after Flock cameras generated false or misapplied warrant hits. These errors put lives at risk and disproportionately harm people of color.
- Flock's matching algorithm can flag a vehicle as wanted even when only partial plate data matches, or when the wrong vehicle shares characteristics with a wanted one.
- In a widely reported Seattle case, a man was falsely arrested at gunpoint because his son — who shares his name — had a felony warrant. Flock's system surfaced the hit; officers did not verify before acting.
- Similar incidents have occurred in Chula Vista, Denver, and other cities where Flock is deployed. Each incident exposes innocent people to potentially deadly police encounters.
- Racial bias in policing means false identifications do not affect all communities equally. Black and Latino drivers are statistically more likely to face the consequences of an erroneous police stop.
- Law enforcement agencies are rarely required to disclose how many false positive alerts Flock generates, making independent accountability nearly impossible.
Insecure by Design
Independent researchers have found serious hardware and software vulnerabilities in Flock devices. Flock dismisses these findings, but the consequences of a breach — your location history, exposed — are permanent.
- Researcher and musician Benn Jordan documented in a public video that Flock devices contain serious security vulnerabilities, stating: "It's extraordinarily easy, like 12-year-olds could do it."
- Flock's official response was that exploiting vulnerabilities "would require physical access to a device" and "intimate knowledge of internal device hardware" — a response security researchers called dismissive and inaccurate.
- ALPR cameras are deployed on public streets, power poles, and road signs. Physical access is not a meaningful barrier for a determined attacker.
- A breach of a Flock database would expose the historical movement patterns of an entire city. Unlike a password breach, you cannot change your location history.
- There is no independent security audit requirement before Flock cameras are deployed in California municipalities. Agencies are essentially trusting a private vendor's word.
What Flock says vs. reality
Flock says
- “Flock only flags vehicles that are wanted — law-abiding citizens have nothing to worry about.”
- “Data is only retained for 30 days and protected with industry-leading security.”
- “Flock cameras have solved thousands of crimes.”
Reality
- Every vehicle is photographed regardless of wanted status. The data is collected first and searched later — that is the definition of mass surveillance.
- Retention periods can be extended by agencies, and independent security researchers have found serious exploitable vulnerabilities in Flock hardware.
- No independent audit has verified these claims. “Solved crimes” statistics come from Flock's own marketing materials.
It's not just us
Communities across the country have examined Flock Safety and decided the risks outweigh the claimed benefits. SLO County can join them.
Severed ties completely
Suspended system
Rejected $2M expansion
Shut down system
Terminated contract
Did not renew contract
60-day suspension
Canceled contract
Canceled contract
Did not renew contract
Canceled contract
Ready to act?
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