A new license plate tracking technology, Flock Safety, has been taking over police departments nationwide. Flock Safety is being used in more than 5,000 police departments, including about 30 departments in Utah. This mass surveillance is highly controversial, as the data can be accessed by virtually anyone.
Flock and other license plate tracking systems are a violation of the privacy and safety of Utahns. Stricter laws need to be implemented for these systems, or they need to be destroyed.
Flock in Utah
Flock is being used across the United States, including Utah. These cameras are used heavily within police departments, but licenses are also offered to HOAs, neighborhoods and other communities.
These cameras are made to be challenging to detect. “Flock Safety cameras are discreetly designed so they don’t compromise the neighborhood aesthetic.”
To identify a Flock camera, look for a small black orb camera beneath a solar panel, usually found on traffic poles near intersections. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has made a tracking portal to find the location of each Flock camera. Additionally, there is a crowdsourced website to find and report new Flock cameras.
The purpose of knowing where these cameras are isn’t so that criminals can try to evade them. It’s imperative for Utahns to know when they’re being surveilled and what’s being done with that data, something Flock has not been clear about.
Mass surveillance
Flock cameras push against the rights found within the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment was written in response to the British’s ability to enter and search any house. With technology, the Fourth Amendment is harder to define. This is where Flock’s mass surveillance shines.
Mass surveillance subjects an entire population or a large group of people to indiscriminate monitoring, which is a violation of privacy. Flock does exactly this by gathering the information of every car that passes the cameras. The information collected includes the license plate of the car, but also the make, model, color, alterations and, as Flock puts it, “other unique information.”
“Flock Safety’s cloud platform has never experienced a data breach, and no customer data has ever been compromised.” Flock released a statement on January 6th, 2026. “Every Flock customer, whether a city, county, law enforcement agency, neighborhood, school or business, retains full ownership and control of the data collected on their behalf.”
These cameras automatically scan and flag every license plate passed by them. This information is sorted through Flock’s algorithm, including automatically sending alerts to police departments for flagged licenses. “When the camera identifies a flagged license plate, the camera will notify the authorities automatically, with no action needed by the camera owner.”
Additionally, the HOA page on Flock’s website says, “The encrypted data collected is 100% owned by your HOA or community and is only kept for 30 days by default.” This statement doesn’t mention who can access this data, purposefully.
In a gross attempt to negate their responsibility for what data is collected, the owner of Flock, Garrett Langley, said, “How communities use their data shouldn’t be up to me, or anyone at Flock. Our customers own the data collected on their behalf … Agencies decide how they collaborate with other agencies, and Flock doesn’t make those decisions for them.”
Flock’s data gathering and the way it handles its data are dangerous and go against Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.
Discrimination and ICE involvement
Flock is dangerous for all citizens. EFF found many worrying searches through Flock’s database, done by whoever is a data owner (HOA, police department, anyone else who’s purchased access). These searches were found to surround protest activities like No Kings and 50501 protests. 19 agencies were found to have searches tied to No Kings protests alone, with even more tied to animal-abuse advocates.
This system has also been used to push discriminatory policing. EFF found many agencies searching for racial slurs, even when there was no crime committed.
A police officer ran a search for a female who had an abortion. This search was run across all 49 states where Flock has cameras.
Additionally, the lack of concrete knowledge and evidence of who is able to view data is worrying. Flock mentions that they don’t sell any customer data, but that’s different than who is able to access it.
Flock states they have not released information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “ICE does not have direct access to Flock cameras, systems or data.” My focus is drawn to the word ‘direct’— ICE does not have direct access, but allegedly, any party can purchase and use Flock’s systems. As ICE officers work closely with police departments, there is no way for Flock to truly confirm if ICE has access to this predatory system.
In fact, there is data proving that ICE officers worked with local police departments to access Flock to track down immigrants.
Flock’s involvement with ICE, whether direct or indirect, is worrying. This company has scanned all of our license plates, whether we’re aware of it or not.
While Flock can be used to track down real criminals, its mass surveillance is a detriment to the safety of all citizens. Living in this digital age makes it hard to define our Fourth Amendment rights, but no Utahn deserves to be surveilled every time they’re on the road.
Flock needs stricter data regulation, or it must be removed from Utah’s streets.
