Chrisanna Elser is suing Flock Group, two Colorado towns, and two police officials after a Flock automated license plate reader wrongly linked her Rivian to a $25 package theft, resulting in a criminal summons. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on behalf of Elser and other Coloradans whose plates Flock has logged, alleges intrusion upon seclusion and negligent design, claiming Flock sold searchable location data without requiring a warrant, case number, or supervisor approval before officers could search it.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-10
Flock Safety plans to lay off about 270 employees, roughly 18 percent of its 1,500-person workforce, effective at the end of October, according to sources cited by Reuters. The cuts follow a recent employee buyout program reported by WIRED, and it remains unclear how many departures are voluntary versus involuntary layoffs.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-09
Surveillance company Flock Safety is reducing its workforce by roughly 18%, or about 270 employees, with departures effective at the end of October, according to Reuters. Flock says the reductions came through a voluntary separation program rather than layoffs, though Wired reported last month the company had asked some staff to leave to avoid mandatory cuts.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-09
A federal jury sided with Alek Schott in his lawsuit against Bexar County and its sheriff, awarding him $76—one dollar for each minute he was detained. Schott was pulled over in March 2022 on a pretextual claim of lane drifting, but the real trigger was a WhatsApp tip from a contact with access to automated license plate reader data, who flagged his travel pattern as suspicious.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-08
Nature has issued an author correction to a previously published paper describing how histone readers MLLT1 and MLLT3 concentrate AID to confer locus specificity. The notice itself provides no details on the nature of the correction, as the page displays only a generic access message without the corrected content.
nature.com
· 2026-10-08
A former police officer argues that Flock Safety's automated license plate recognition cameras have replaced guesswork with instant, precise identification of stolen vehicles. The Atlanta startup, founded in 2017, installs solar-powered roadside cameras that photograph passing cars, log identifying details, and check plates against the FBI's national database in real time, alerting officers to matches.
worksinprogress.co
· 2026-10-07
Amazon has cut the price of its previous-generation Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition to $169.99, down from $249.99. The standard previous-gen Paperwhite is also discounted, to $149.99 from $199.99. Both retain the 300ppi display, auto-adjusting front light and IPX8 waterproofing found in the newer model.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-06
Amazon has updated its basic Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Colorsoft devices, introducing a flush-front screen design, edge-to-edge accent colors, and a new oxide TFT display backplane for the Paperwhite and Colorsoft models. The base Kindle is now smaller and opens books more quickly, following a stretch in which Amazon drew criticism for discontinuing older e-readers and restricting downloads of purchased books.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-05
San Francisco officials say car-related crime has fallen sharply in the city, pointing in part to the deployment of Flock Safety's automated license-plate-reading cameras. The report examines how much of that decline can be attributed to the camera network versus other factors like policing strategy and broader crime trends.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-04
An investigation into Flock Safety's automated license-plate camera system argues that its core design, not isolated misuse, allows police and other agencies to query cameras they never purchased or deployed. The report cites a case in Georgia where a woman's ex-boyfriend appeared to track her movements via the network, suggesting data from local cameras can flow well beyond their intended jurisdiction.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-04
Lexington, Kentucky police surrounded the home of Will Penn and Robin Pen at 4 a.m. with guns drawn after automatic license plate reader data from Flock Safety flagged Penn's truck as resembling a vehicle described in a felony assault case. Officers confirmed the couple had no connection to the crime, but the raid occurred while Penn's 94-year-old grandmother was in the house.
futurism.com
· 2026-10-03
Federal judge Sara Hill ruled that a Tulsa County deputy's warrantless search of Flock's nationwide license-plate reader database violated the Fourth Amendment, suppressing evidence of roughly 91 pounds of methamphetamine found during the stop. The case began when a deputy tailed a car solely because of its out-of-state plates, then used Flock's database to review over 50 prior sightings of the vehicle before searching it. Separately, Senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation to ban license plate reader networks like Flock's nationwide.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-03
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