Multiple US municipalities voted Tuesday on ballot measures targeting automatic license plate readers like those made by Flock Safety. York County, Maine passed a measure 72-28 to remove existing ALPRs and require voter approval for future installations, while League City, Texas voters rejected continued police use of the cameras by a 54-46 margin. Pflugerville, Texas also passed ordinances requiring public approval before deploying facial recognition or other AI surveillance tools.
futurism.com
· 2026-11-06
Since this summer, more than ten U.S. municipalities and police departments—including Asheville, Richmond, Lansing, Monroe, and League City—have voted to end, restrict, or phase out contracts with Flock Safety's license plate readers and other surveillance tools. The moves follow local pushback over privacy, data-sharing practices, and procurement concerns, with Flock cameras currently deployed in over 100,000 locations nationwide.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-11-06
Emory University has removed Flock Safety's automated license-plate-reading cameras from campus, with a spokesperson saying the move keeps safety infrastructure under the institution's own control. The decision follows a broader student-led 'de-flock' movement questioning the use of Flock's surveillance technology at colleges.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-11-01
Plymouth, Minnesota's city council voted in September to terminate its Flock Safety contract, but after a month without response from the company, Police Chief Eric Fadden had staff physically disconnect the cameras' power cords. In nearby Dayton, Minnesota, Flock acknowledged a cancellation request but then reconnected two cameras without authorization despite local police explicitly telling the company not to complete the work order.
theverge.com
· 2026-11-01
Plymouth City Council voted on September 22 to end its contract with license-plate camera maker Flock, and the city notified Flock the next day, followed by a formal cancellation letter. When Flock did not respond for more than a week, Police Chief Eric Fadden ordered staff to unplug the cameras' power cords to stop them from recording.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-11-01
The city of Dayton, Minnesota says Flock Safety installed and activated two license-plate cameras despite being told on September 18 that the program was on hold and no work orders should proceed. City staff later found a second reinstalled camera and have asked Flock to remove both. Separately, police departments in Crystal and St. Paul, Minnesota removed Flock cameras themselves after council votes ended their contracts, and are still waiting for Flock to retrieve the equipment.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-31
Dayton, Minnesota's government says Flock reinstalled two surveillance cameras and put them back into service despite being told a day earlier that the city's work order program was on hold. Residents noticed the cameras and alerted police, who removed them; Dayton had already voted in August to cancel its Flock contract, and city officials say the company took five days to acknowledge the cancellation and said removal would take 60 days.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-30
The ACLU has documented cases where police stopped drivers based only on AI-powered automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data flagging their travel as 'suspicious,' with no other cause. In one 2025 case, a woman driving through multiple states to Florida was pulled over by a self-identified FBI agent after her out-of-state plate and travel pattern looked unusual in the ALPR database. These nationwide camera networks, often built by Flock, let authorities search vehicle movements without a warrant.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-28
Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell urged the city council to keep or expand Flock Safety's automated license plate reader network, citing its role in solving a recent killing and a double homicide earlier this year. During a roughly seven-hour July 13 meeting, dozens of residents and people from nearby towns spoke out, largely opposing the technology over fears of surveillance and privacy violations.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-26
Proton AG is now hosting a map built from leaked Flock data showing over 300,000 license plate reader cameras, after Flock sent a cease-and-desist letter to the map's original creator, researcher Joshua Michael. Unlike Michael's U.S.-only site, Proton's version is accessible worldwide and lets users search camera locations by ZIP code, though it reflects a November 2025 snapshot rather than live data.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-24
Proton, maker of Proton Mail and Proton VPN, has taken over hosting of an interactive map tracking Flock Safety's license plate readers and AI surveillance cameras across the US. The tool was created by security researcher Joshua Michael in September and survived a trademark complaint from Flock demanding its removal. Proton says the map counts over 214,000 Flock devices in service, far above the 120,000 Flock itself reported this summer.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-22
MapQuest has introduced a new map layer in its navigation app that marks the locations of license-plate reading cameras, including those made by Flock Safety. Toggling the layer on shows a red eye icon with a cone indicating the camera's field of view, though the app does not yet offer routes that avoid them. MapQuest has not disclosed how it sourced the camera location data.
zdnet.com
· 2026-10-19
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