Flock Cameras: What They Are, and Why I'm Worried About Them

There is little empirical evidence that surveillance cameras reduce crime.

Crime clearance rates haven't improved.

Understanding Flock Safety

Flock Safety is a surveillance technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia that sells gunshot detectors and automated camera systems to police departments, homeowner associations, and private businesses. Sounds harmless, right? Just some folks wanting to stop shooters and find stolen cars. Founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd, the company now operates in over 6,000 communities across 49 states, working with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000+ businesses. The company is valued at $8.4 billion and received $275 million in venture capital investment from major firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund.

Spoiler, it's not just about catching car thieves anymore.

From License Plate Readers to Something Much Worse

Maybe initially some of these devices were "just ALPRs." Automated License Plate Readers photographing license plates as vehicles pass by, using optical character recognition to digitize the data, and checking it against databases of stolen vehicles or warrants. That seemed manageable. Most people could live with cameras reading plates for obvious crimes.

But with the introduction of AI, they have transformed into something else entirely.

Modern Flock deployments now include:

• License plate readers that scan every vehicle passing by, storing data for months or years
• Pan-Tilt-Zoom video cameras with AI-powered tracking that can follow people from location to location like a stalker with a budget
• Audio detection devices like Flock Raven that function as gunshot detectors but by default, are always listening
• Mobile security trailers with cameras
• Drones as first responders

According to Flock's own product descriptions, their PTZ cameras include a "Guardian Mode" feature that automatically detects, zooms in on, and captures high-resolution images of people and vehicles around the clock. Security researcher Benn Jordan discovered that Flock's training videos show police using the system to track suspects "from location to location to location" — aka "a pattern of life" — directly contradicting Flock's public claims that their cameras only record license plates and do not track people.

Translation: They told us one thing while showing their customers how to do something else entirely.

Atlanta: America's Surveillance Capital

Atlanta itself has become ground zero for this technology. The city now has a documented 28,000+ cameras, and some estimates put the metro area closer to 1 camera for every 8 residents. Atlanta has more cameras per capita than any other U.S. city and, outside of China, ranks among the most surveilled cities in the world.

Flock, being Atlanta-based, has played a central role in building this infrastructure.

Our Data Now Belongs to Flock

The real power of Flock isn't the individual cameras. It's the network. Flock connects all of its cameras across jurisdictions into a single searchable platform. When one camera captures a plate or person, that data becomes instantly searchable across the entire network. There are now over 200,000 ALPRs in the United States alone operating on Flock's network. (flocksurveillance.org)

Here's the kicker. In February 2026, Flock updated its Terms and Conditions to include a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to customer data. The contract states:

Perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license

The explanation from their own terms document makes it crystal clear:

Flock retains the right to use all footage forever — even after a contract ends.

Previous language that explicitly stated "Flock does not own and shall not sell Customer Data" and "Never sold or shared with third parties" were both removed entirely from the contract. As was the entire Section 4.3 covering training, data guardrails requiring de-identification, separate storage, and limited use.

Cities believed they owned their data. Under the new terms that, oh by the way, are on a website owned and controlled exclusively by Flock, Flock granted itself the right to use footage indefinitely for AI training, product development, or anything the company defines as an improvement. It's like renting an apartment and discovering the landlord videotapes everything you do and sells that information for profit.

Documented Harms and Abuse

Law enforcement officers have used Flock systems to stalk current or former romantic partners, sometimes hundreds of times while falsely claiming they were investigating them. Multiple wrongful arrests have occurred nationwide when police relied on inaccurate AI readings from these systems. For example, a woman and her children were forced out of their vehicle at gunpoint, another woman spent 3 days in solitary confinement on charges of a fatal hit-and-run, a man in Vegas was arrested despite showing ID that he was NOT the man they were looking for, and a woman was accused with 100% certainty of stealing packages — all wrongfully accused of crimes based on faulty ALPR data.

The Big Picture: It's About Power, Not Public Safety

There is little empirical evidence that surveillance cameras reduce crime. After Chicago cancelled their contract with ShotSpotter, an audio detection device operating on similar technology as Flock's Raven devices, they discovered police were responding faster to 911 calls than when they had ShotSpotter. So what's the point if not to improve public safety?

Private camera purchases are not subject to disclosure or city procurement processes, yet they can be integrated into real-time crime centers without public input. Law enforcement nonprofits can donate or purchase surveillance technology on behalf of local departments, rendering them inaccessible through public records requests despite clearly serving government functions.

These types of technology enable "pattern of life" profiling — tracking where you drive, what you watch, who you meet, what devices you carry and even what opinions you express by connecting seemingly separate surveillance systems into unified databases. This creates a surveillance infrastructure that, according to multiple observers, exceeds even China in scope for daily American life.

For-profit companies are profiting from selling access to everyone's — including YOUR — pattern of life data. Police departments gain unprecedented access to information about everyone in their jurisdiction. And the communities paying for these systems through contracts and taxes? We get none of the promised safety benefits while our fundamental rights erode in real time.

Welcome to the future where you're guilty until proven innocent.

Sources

De-Flock Cobb presentation (2026); Flock Safety Terms of Service update Feb 2026 (footnote4a.org); InvestigateTV investigation June 2026; 404 Media reporting on SignalTrace; Electronic Frontier Foundation Oct 2025; AJC documentary on Atlanta surveillance July 2026; VitalCity NYC and IG Chicago on ShotSpotter; Yahoo News on police stalking cases; AP News on wrongful arrests; TechSpot on Andreessen Horowitz/Toka connection.