---

Here’s a list of issues with the Flock system, the company, and what our City has engaged in.

Issue	Source
1) Security vulnerabilities, hardware vulnerabilities, unsecured devices	White Paper on Flock
2) Section 4.3 of the contract grants Flock to unlimited perpetual rights to images to develop their Ai systems	Signed 2024-2026 Contract
3) Section 5.3 of the contract grants Flock to share the images with anyone at their discretion	Signed 2024-2026 Contract
4) The city attorney asked for contract modifications but none of the edits made it into the signed version	City requested changes to the contract, but those didn’t make it into the signed contract
5) Sales people trying to worm their way into the parks department. Condor system being pushed on Ridgecrest?	Flock’s email asking about Parks & Rec
6) CEO Accusing Skip of libel for asking ‘Who owns Flock?’	CEO’s email
7) 1:1 sharing name confusing. Flock company blames cities for enabling the nationwide sharing	Confusing GUI and naming tricks PDs into turning on National Sharing
8) Blank entries for why RPD is using the the Flock are violations of California Law	RPD Flock portal. Scroll down to Search Audit to Download
9) Warrantless surveillance	4th Amendment
10) 5th Amendment Violation. Public works installed poles off the easement on private property and signed forms behalf of owners because City deemed permits not necessary.	Email thread about installing poles
11) Sgt Groves is also the task force officer for the FBI and can not use his flock access for federal investigations	Email about Stg Groves being a TFO for FBI
12) Email from Flock apologizing that RPD’s information had been shared	Email from Flock about spillage

To view all of the documents that was released to us about Flock from the City of Ridgecrest after our FOIA request, click here.

---

Come to the Ridgecrest city town hall on Flock surveillance cameras on Saturday February 7th at 9 am in the City Council chambers at 100 W California Avenue. This is your chance to express concern about the 24 cameras the city installed at major intersections that record the movements of every vehicle that moves past them.

The mayor, police chief and some members of the city council will be there. Are you concerned that Flock is violating your right to privacy and can’t be trusted to keep the data they collect on us safe? Tell them to:

Get the Flock Out!
and Sign the petition!

We need to prove to the City that the people of Ridgecrest do not want or need the Flock system in our town. Once we get enough signatures, we can ask for the City Council to add the topic onto the agenda for a council members vote to cancel the contract. Cities all over the country are getting rid of their systems. We need 3 out of 5 votes on the council to vote to cancel the contract. We have 2, we need to convince just one more council member to change their minds.

Table of Contents

1. About Flock
2. Research
3. Map of Flock Cameras
4. Flock in the News
5. More Videos

About Flock

Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves – Flock cameras stream sensitive surveillance data to anyone with an Internet connection. No password necessary!

We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. – YouTube video by Ben Jordan summarizing security flaws of Flock camera hardware.

Research

1. White paper on the security flaws of Flock’s camera hardware.
2. Ridgecrest PD Flock “Transparency Portal” – See Flocks own statistics of how often the cameras are tracking you.
3. Eyes On Flock – Transparency Portal Aggregator.

Map of Flock Cameras

Deflock.me map – A user generated map of all the Flock automatic license plate cameras throughout the country.

Flock in the News

1. Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns –
2. The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found.
3. California police are illegally sharing license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol – Law enforcement agencies across Southern California violated state law more than 100 times last month by sharing information from automated license plate readers with federal agents, records show.
4. Flock Can Share Driver-Surveillance Data Even When Police Departments Opt Out, And Other Flock Developments – [Flock] has recently been feeling the heat after the revelation that data from its national license plate scanner network was (and likely still is being) shared with Trump Administration agencies including ICE.
5. Flock Can Share Driver-Surveillance Data Even When Police Departments Opt Out, And Other Flock Developments – [Flock] has recently been feeling the heat after the revelation that data from its national license plate scanner network was (and likely still is being) shared with Trump Administration agencies including ICE.
6. ICE accessed Capitola license plate data. Police say it was a mistake. – Throughout 2024 and early 2025, federal and out-of-state law enforcement agencies searched Capitola Police Department’s database of automatic license plate readers more than three million times, violating multiple laws.
7. Anti-Flock group finds that state agencies accessed SCPD camera data thousands of times on feds’ behalf since mid-2024 – Numerous California law enforcement agencies searched the Santa Cruz Police Department’s Flock camera data thousands of times in the past 18 months on behalf of federal immigration agencies, according to data compiled by grassroots coalition Get The Flock Out
8. Santa Cruz votes to terminate its contract with Flock Safety – The Santa Cruz City Council voted 6-1 to terminate the city’s contract with Flock Safety, the company that provides automated license plate cameras to Santa Cruz, Capitola and Watsonville along with other jurisdictions across the country, at its meeting Tuesday afternoon.
9. Documents reveal scope of LMPD investigation into immigration-related Flock searches – The searches were of Flock camera networks across the nation and in Louisville. The searches contained the keywords ‘immigration’ or ‘ERO’. ERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations, and is a division of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 
10. Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI – Flock accidentally exposed training materials and a panel which tracked what its AI annotators were working on. It showed that Flock, which has cameras in thousands of U.S. communities, is using workers in the Philippines to review and classify footage.
11. Flock CEO Claims Watching the Watchers is Unfair and One-Sided – Flock CEO Garrett Langley recently assured a Virginia police chief that Flock is “CJIS compliant.” He’s technically correct—and completely misleading.
12. City of Staunton to end relationship with Flock Safety, remove license plate readers – The city’s press release said this statement from Flock Safety “does not reflect the city’s values,” and despite the successes the Staunton Police Department has seen from using the technology, “the city does not agree with the assessment” from the company.
13. Two Tales of Real-World Flock Abuse– Two Georgia police officers face stalking charges after audit tools flagged repeated searches of the same plates. Flock’s response: remove names from audit logs.
14. Braselton police chief accused of misusing police cameras to stalk people – Braselton Police Chief Michael Steffman announced he was retiring and resigned from the department for personal reasons. He was booked and charged, accused of using police cameras to stalk and harass people.
15. Former Georgia sheriff’s office employee accused of stalking people using department Flock account – A former southeast Georgia sheriff’s office employee faces multiple charges amid accusations she violated her oath and used department technology to stalk people.
16. Cop Used Flock to Wrongfully Accuse a Woman Then Refused to Look at Evidence That Exonerated Her, Body Camera Shows – A police officer in Colorado used evidence from Flock cameras to wrongfully accuse an innocent woman for package theft, then yelled at her on the phone when she told him she had evidence that exonerated her, according to body camera footage obtained by 404 Media.
17. Has Flock Been Hacked? What Their Security Blog Post Doesn’t Say – Flock claims it has “never been hacked.” A fact-check of their January 2026 blog post reveals semantic games, undisclosed offshore contractors, and CJIS compliance failures.
18. “The Burden of Compliance Shouldn’t Stand in the Way of Public Safety” – Flock launches anti-oversight campaign as audit logs expose questionable agency actions. The company blocked transparency tools hours after publication.
19. Procurement Power—When Cities Realized They Can Just Say No – For decades, cities have been caught in what researchers call “legacy procurement practices”: administrative norms that prioritize “efficiency” and “cost thresholds” over democratic review. Vendors exploit this inertia through the “pilot loophole.” As Taraaz and the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience (CRCR) note in a recent report, “no-cost offers” and free trials allow police departments to bypass formal procurement channels entirely. By the time the bill comes due, the surveillance is already normalised in the community, turning a purchase decision into a “continuation of service” that is politically difficult to stop.
20. Lawsuit Challenges San Jose’s Warrantless ALPR Mass Surveillance – San Jose and its police department routinely violate the California Constitution by conducting warrantless searches of the stored records of millions of drivers’ private habits, movements, and associations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) argue in a lawsuit…
21. Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone – A Washington judge said images taken by Flock cameras are “not exempt from disclosure” in public record requests.
22. Federal Lawsuit Challenges City’s Use of Flock Cameras – YouTube video summarizing a federal lawsuit challenging the warrant-less surveillance conducted by Flock cameras in Norfolk Virginia
23. Mountain View police turns off license plate readers after ‘unauthorized’ federal access – Mountain View’s police chief said Monday that the city’s license plate reader cameras will be turned off until the City Council decides whether to keep them operating in the city. The decision follows the police department’s criticism last week of Flock Safety, the company supplying its automated license plate reader system, after an audit turned up alleged “unauthorized” use by federal law enforcement agencies.
24. Los Altos Hills to remove ALPR cameras – Los Altos Hills has decided to remove its Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras around town, citing concerns about data privacy, cost considerations and overall effectiveness.

More Videos