Cities are dropping Flock’s surveillance cameras at a report tempo

Backside line: Extra native governments are ending contracts with Flock Security as criticism of the corporate’s AI-powered digital camera community spreads throughout the nation. The pullback displays mounting concern that Flock’s fast-growing, searchable digital camera community is increasing surveillance quicker than many native communities are keen to simply accept.

Safe Justice, an Oakland-based anti-surveillance group, says 214 cities and counties have dropped Flock since 2021. Ninety jurisdictions ended contracts in August alone, a fourfold enhance from July, in accordance with the group’s newest replace. That works out to about three cancellations a day throughout the month.

The cities vary from Lansing, Michigan, to Pflugerville, Texas. Their issues embody the price of the cameras, the sharing of knowledge amongst companies, the attain of Flock’s surveillance community, and stories of police officers misusing the system.

Flock sells automated license plate reader cameras and associated software program to police departments, native governments, and personal customers. Its system permits companies to go looking knowledge collected by cameras in different taking part communities, making the dimensions of the community central to its worth.

Brian Hofer, government director of Safe Justice, stated the rising variety of cancellations may weaken the attain of Flock’s shared digital camera community. A smaller community provides companies fewer cameras and fewer areas to go looking.

” that picture, it is gone parabolic!” Hofer stated. “While you see that now 165 [cancellations] are simply within the first nearly eight months of this yr… At that pace, if it goes one other yr, we’re speaking critical cash. That quantity goes to get large, quick.”

Flock stated the lack of contracts has been outweighed by new enterprise. Courtney Terlecki, an organization spokesperson, stated new metropolis partnerships have outpaced nonrenewals by about 10 to at least one this yr. The corporate didn’t disclose what number of new clients it has added in 2026, however stated its merchandise are utilized by greater than 5,000 communities.

“To this point in 2026, new metropolis partnerships have outpaced nonrenewals by roughly 10 to at least one,” Terlecki stated. “That doesn’t imply each neighborhood will make the identical choice, and we perceive that public security know-how deserves considerate public dialogue and neighborhood engagement.”

The controversy is not restricted to conventional license plate readers. Critics say AI is increasing what the methods can do and making it simpler to go looking giant swimming pools of digital camera knowledge.

“Perhaps prior to now it did not really feel like each crimson gentle cam actually meant a pair of eyes was watching you, however with AI, that is more and more turning into the fact,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Heart for Democracy and Know-how’s Safety and Surveillance Undertaking, stated in an e mail to Ars.

He stated Flock permits searches involving key phrases and folks, whereas different native digital camera networks are including real-time facial recognition. He additionally pointed to Border Patrol’s use of AI to research license plate reader knowledge for driving patterns.

“And we’re already seeing how AI can morph ALPRs [automated license plate reader] right into a mass surveillance dragnet,” Laperruque stated. “Flock lets its cameras be looked for key phrases and folks, cities are incorporating real-time facial recognition into digital camera networks, Border Patrol is utilizing AI to scan ALPR knowledge for driving patterns [and] pulling folks over at any time when the AI deems their driving ‘suspicious.'”

Flock has made coverage adjustments amid the criticism. CEO Garrett Langley just lately stated the corporate would scale back its default knowledge retention interval from 30 days to seven days. The corporate additionally up to date its phrases of use to ban clients from utilizing Flock providers to mislead, harass, or stalk somebody, or in any other case violate an individual’s authorized rights.

The adjustments haven’t ended the political backlash. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., stated final week that he’s investigating Flock’s assortment, retention, and dissemination of knowledge from its AI surveillance cameras. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis additionally criticized the know-how after two Florida cops have been arrested for allegedly misusing Flock.

Catherine Crump, a UC Berkeley legislation professor, stated reported makes use of of the system have widened the priority past privateness advocates. She cited stories {that a} Texas sheriff’s workplace used the community to go looking for a girl who had obtained an abortion, and that federal brokers used the cameras to establish attendees at a gun present.

“It positively doesn’t assist that that is yet one more Silicon Valley product that nobody requested for that threatens to reshape folks’s lives,” Crump stated.