Flock's AI surveillance cameras track far more than plates — and they're everywhere

Flock Safety has become the dominant supplier in a fleet of more than 100,000 automated license plate readers now deployed across the US, but calling them plate readers undersells what they do. The cameras run modified Android, stream footage to a centralized database, and let anyone with access run natural-language searches — querying not just plates but descriptions like a green sedan with a flag sticker, or a person. Flock also sells AI cameras that track individuals, mobile trailers, and drones, all feeding the same searchable system. Many local departments opt into a nationwide network, so police hundreds of miles away can query local footage, and ICE and other Homeland Security agencies routinely gain access through data-sharing arrangements with local police — Denver logs alone showed over 1,400 searches run on ICE’s behalf by August.

The security record is poor. Independent researcher Benn Jordan — a musician with no formal infosec background — repeatedly found basic flaws, including roughly 70 cameras exposed to the internet with no password, streaming live footage of children and private moments. With brief physical access, he and a collaborator pressed a button to join the camera over Wi-Fi, used standard Android debug tools to get root, and even planted malware; exposed USB ports offered another way in. Rather than running a bug bounty or crediting researchers, Flock has publicly smeared them as activists trying to defund the police.

Abuse from the inside is just as serious. 404 Media documented dozens of cases of officers using Flock to stalk ex-partners and others, typically surfaced only after a victim looked themselves up via tools like HaveIBeenFlocked — meaning the known cases are likely a fraction of the total, since searches require no warrant and leave no paperwork. Flock employees were also caught watching children at a Jewish community center pool and gymnastics class and using the feeds in sales demos. The cameras have solved real crimes, but their AI tracks everyone indiscriminately, and once a city installs them they are extremely hard to remove.