West Haven, Connecticut plans to link four AXIS audio detection devices to its existing Rekor license plate readers to catch loud mufflers and stereos, with first-offense fines up to $100. Mayor Dorinda Borer said the city still needs to set a noise threshold and that flagged violations will be emailed to police for manual review rather than automatically ticketed. The move follows similar noise-camera programs in cities like New York, Knoxville, Miami Beach and Santa Fe, where NYC's 12 cameras issued 1,691 summonses in 2025 with fines reaching $2,625.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-28
Newly unsealed court documents show five Indianapolis police officers have been charged with misusing the department's Flock automatic license plate readers, including 18-year veteran Jonathan Schultz, accused of using roughly 300 cameras to stalk his ex-wife and another woman. Separately, Franklin County, North Carolina ended its Flock contract and fired a detective for tracking a private citizen, while San Jose officials are pushing for tighter controls after an officer shared Flock data with a relative accused of domestic violence.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-27
Indianapolis police charged five officers Wednesday with fraud and misconduct after an internal audit of the city's 301-camera Flock system uncovered widespread abuse; one officer also faces a stalking charge. One officer had already resigned and the other four were suspended and recommended for termination. County prosecutor Ryan Mears said one officer searched license plates tied to his wife and two acquaintances 3,759 times over ten months.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-24
Flock Safety announced changes to its automated license-plate-reading system after facing scrutiny from lawmakers in Congress. The company shortened its default data-retention period from 30 days to seven, introduced standardized categories for why searches are conducted, and will now require officers to enter case numbers before running a search.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-23
404 Media is asking residents nationwide to submit public records showing how local police departments use Axon's automatic license plate reader cameras, which many cities are adopting after backlash over Flock's role in ICE lookups and a Texas officer's search related to a self-managed abortion. The outlet has already gathered Axon 'activity reports' from six police agencies detailing which officers searched plate data, their badge numbers, and stated justifications, but wants more submissions to map usage nationwide.
404media.co
· 2026-09-21
Flock Safety launched a voluntary severance program on Friday, giving employees until October 2 to decide whether to leave with a package the company called generous. Insiders expect a large share of its roughly 1,500 workers to apply, as the surveillance firm faces mounting customer losses and public criticism over its network of license plate cameras.
wired.com
· 2026-09-19
Senator Josh Hawley is calling on Flock Safety's chief executive to testify before the Senate next week over the company's automated license plate reading network. Hawley argues that the surveillance technology, deployed widely across the country, threatens Americans' basic privacy expectations during everyday activities like commuting or attending church.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-18
Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license plate reader from a roadway, extracted an encryption key from its storage, and shared the recovered files with 404 Media and WIRED. The data showed the device's software identifies not just vehicles and plates but also people, bicycles, and even small details like bumper stickers, generating over a million images in just weeks of logs.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-17
A hacker group calling itself stegan0gram physically removed a Flock license-plate-reading camera from a roadway pole, reverse-engineered its solar-powered hardware, and copied its storage. Inside, they found unencrypted partitions containing an encryption key that unlocked a trove of 27,321 short video clips and roughly 1.6 million images capturing over 50,200 vehicles across a 21-day logging period. The findings, examined jointly by 404 Media and Wired, showed the device also occasionally detected people on motorcycles, though no active facial recognition was found.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-17
WIRED found that Flock, whose license plate readers are used by police nationwide, has quietly stopped specifying where its cameras are manufactured in recent marketing materials, despite years of touting domestic production. A US manufacturer that once listed Flock as a client removed the reference from its website amid growing public backlash against the company's surveillance technology.
wired.com
· 2026-09-17
Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Michael Cloud introduced the No FLOCK Act, which would cut 10 percent of a state's federal highway funding unless it restricts automated license plate readers like Flock to five specific uses, such as tracking stolen vehicles or felony suspects. The bill excludes broader applications like traffic studies or minor drug enforcement, but does not ban the technology outright or restrict sharing plate data with agencies including immigration enforcement.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-16
A group of hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license-plate camera, copied its internal storage, and recovered an encryption key that unlocked thousands of stored vehicle images. They shared the extracted files with 404 Media and WIRED, and separately with the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, along with details of how they pulled off the extraction so others could replicate it.
wired.com
· 2026-09-16
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