No User, Only a Subject: Chatrie Tests Meet Plate Readers
A draft article by Orin Kerr maps three Chatrie tests. When applied to ALPR, they kill real-time crime centers.
Footnote4a
Editorial reporting from Footnote4a
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Own the narrative before someone else does
In three weeks, twenty agencies in fifteen states talked about "misinformation" and "accountability", following Flock's playbook. Let's compare the logs.
Flock's Bishop Fox engagement: Six months later
It has been six months since Flock engaged Bishop Fox and promised the results of security audits would be "communicated transparently." To date, no security issues have been fixed, and no results have been communicated.
This Deal Is Getting Worse All the Time: Flock's 911 Terms Now Live on Axon's Website
Flock's 911 product binds police agencies to terms hosted on prepared911.com and assigns ownership of your 911 calls to its competitor, Axon.
Come on in, the side door is open!
More than three out of four Flock agencies report running queries for other departments at least monthly, bypassing oversight and preventing adequate logging. One in five do so daily.
Cameras don't track people, Flock does
The Pleasant Hill, IA, department blamed 'misinformation' after a Flock camera was destroyed. Flock makes the same claim. We tried to verify, but found mysterious radar modules and car-tracking buttons instead.
Flock is Literally on Fire
The company faces severe backlash and more and more cameras are being cut down and destroyed. Two cameras in Georgia caught fire; it's being investigated as arson, but will that be enough?
Costa Mesa Keeps Flock
After an officer abused two police databases to stalk women, Costa Mesa, California, heard nearly five hours of resident opposition — cutting speakers' time partway through — before voting 6-1 to keep the system.
Flock Blames Bad Data While Blowing Past Every Guardrail
Two journalists were stopped over a partial plate in an NCIC hotlist. Flock calls it a feature; the NCIC operating manual calls it a violation.
Flock Would Rather Jail Cops Than Turn Off the Cameras
Flock credits its AI-powered "Audit Assistance" tool for a wave of officer arrests — press releases included. Exposing abuse after the fact isn't a fix; it's what keeps the surveillance sellable.
Cleveland Makes First Flock Referendum Possible
Cleveland's Flock contract extension passed 9-6 — one vote short of emergency effect, giving Clevelanders 30 days to force a referendum.
The Monster Did It: The Five Flavors of Flock Fatalism
Flock's core rhetorical product isn't safety — it's fatalism. Every argument the company makes for its products reduces to "this was always going to happen, so the only question is configuration." Discourse in Cleveland is exposing why that argument doesn't hold.
Flock Ignores Contract, Bypasses Approval for Invoices
Flock's contract requires prior approval before replacing hardware. Records from Riverside County show Flock replacing cameras and invoicing after the fact — and the county unable to keep track of what it's being billed for.
Urban Combat Veteran Announced as Flock Forward Keynote Speaker
Flock's annual conference will be keynoted by Matt Eversmann, an urban combat veteran of the Battle of Mogadishu — hired by a company whose CEO calls its critics "terrorists."
The Chatrie Decision and ALPR
Yesterday's Supreme Court decision "will send seismic waves through our Fourth Amendment doctrine," according to Justice Alito's dissent. It could.
Sixteen States and DC File Fourth Circuit Brief in Support of Norfolk's Surveillance
Sixteen states argue that if one license-plate scan is legal, a city-wide surveillance network must be too.
Cop Arrested for Flock-Stalking Exposes Another Oversight Failure
A McHenry County, IL, cop was arrested for "official misconduct" for using Flock to stalk people. The behavior went unnoticed for months.
The Data-Sharing Shell Game: San Francisco Figured it Out
San Francisco figures out Flock has been improperly disseminating data for years. SFPD cracked the case all by themselves — it had nothing to do with a high school newspaper spelling it out for them a few weeks ago.
Iowa DPS: Compliance Depends on Who's Asking
DPS awarded a federal grant on a certification of compliance that was never in place. When a complaint exposed the gap, DPS' grant bureau chief quietly handed the grant recipient the missing paperwork, while declaring the complaint "unfounded."
Flock Calls ALPR Information "Wholly Irrelevant" to Lawsuit About Policy on ALPR Information
Flock's system captures over 130 data fields. In court, Flock calls them "wholly irrelevant" to a lawsuit about whether it ever disclosed collecting them.
New Castle, PA put Flock in its only Majority-Minority Neighborhood
Nearly three years of Flock event logs show New Castle, Pennsylvania concentrated all 31 of its surveillance devices in the city's only majority-minority census tract, and shows a group of officers running scores of plates through permanent, private watchlists without associated cases.
Never For General Patrol: Flock's Drone Proposition
Flock's November 2024 drone demo showed exactly what its 2026 product page denies. The Supreme Court already ruled on this in 2001.
Thornton PD Investigated Itself and Found no Wrongdoing
Focusing only on the overall search count, not the substantive issues, Thornton PD cleared itself of wrongdoing.
We Have to Treat Everyone
In this webinar, a Flock sales lead tells hospital customers to add fired and laid-off healthcare workers to the watchlist.
Under Construction: California Class Action Lawsuits
While the existing Flock suits move toward consolidation, a new one drops; this time against The Home Depot and its "gravely dangerous" use of ALPRs.
Welcome to Dunwoody's Virtual Human Zoo
Flock claimed explicit permission to view cameras where children play. Dunwoody says no such permission exists.
Front-Loading the Determination: A Response to EFF on ALPR Transparency
EFF proposes case-by-case balancing instead of exemptions. Front-loaded rulemaking and watchlist-based determinations would actually work.
Pattern of Life: Why a City Canceled Flock
Oshkosh, WI, approved a contract with Flock, then canceled it the next day because Flock had lied about a "Pattern of Life" heatmap. We let Flock explain what that is.
These Are Just False
On a Flock webinar, the company's policy lead denies a federal backdoor, then describes it ninety seconds later — while dismissing "claims in the media" as false.
Flock Quietly Breaks "No Federal Access" Promise
Flock tells communities it has no federal contracts. Once the city signs, it quietly grants the FBI access anyway.
The Cost of Being Alive: Flock CEO Langley at TED2026
Flock's CEO told a $12,500-a-seat TED audience that in South Africa, "crime is simply the cost of being alive." His own company is helping keep it that way.
Flock Dodges Dunwoody Question with Demo Defense
Flock responds to allegations that its executives accessed cameras inside a community center gymnastics room — three months late, via blog post, and with a novel theory of what 'crime-solving' means.
The Dunwoody Drone Deal
Dunwoody tried to negotiate a Flock contract. The MSA won narrow concessions on data governance but left every structural problem intact. The drone program is ungoverned, Flock's liability in year two is $0, and sensitive law enforcement data is flowing to a third party under terms the MSA doesn't reach.
The More the Logs Change, the More the Oversight Stays the Same
Flock Safety audit log entries — including unique IDs and timestamps — change between downloads, with 3-7% of records swapping daily. Because of course they do.
Within 24 Hours
Milk ages slower.
Flock Goes Global: How a $7.5 Billion Surveillance Company Found Its International Partner in South Africa's Most Controversial Camera Network
Vumacam sells Flock surveillance in South Africa. Its founder was criminally investigated for operating unlicensed cameras. Its cameras have been called digital apartheid. It all tracks.
No Permit, No Problem: California Governor Hopeful Chad Bianco's 500+ Unauthorized Surveillance Cameras
Riverside County issued three encroachment permits for 500+ Flock surveillance cameras to the wrong permittee and based on incomplete applications. Then it let them lapse for over a year. Bianco and Flock continued to operate them.
Trust Me, Bro: Flock's Latest Security Blog, Reviewed
Flock Safety's new CISO published a blog post defending the company's cybersecurity record. It relies on misquoted opponents, vibe-based severity ratings, and a conspicuous absence of actual evidence.
"Flock Wing License(s) Included": How Speed Cameras Became Surveillance Cameras
Procurement records reveal how Flock Safety sneaks its cameras into school zones with zero data governance provisions in the contract.
The Platform: Flock Safety Is Running on Promises, Not Policy
Flock Safety's three campaign promises — local control, no federal access, no employee access — are contradicted by Dunwoody PD audit logs, an FBI criminal complaint, and a Flock training video recorded on a live police account.
Who Is Flock Intelligence?
An unknown Flock-affiliated entity searched Dunwoody GA PD's camera networks 606 times in five months using AI-powered queries — many targeting political expression. Four other Flock-internal organizations also appear in the logs.
You Will Own Nothing: How Flock Safety Keeps Cities From Their Own Surveillance Data
Flock customers technically 'own' their footage — but can't access high-resolution originals, get images with unreliable timestamps and scrubbed metadata, and must submit formal requests through Flock's own evidence platform just to obtain their own records.
Virgin Islands Looking for Stolen Cars in Arkansas
Virgin Island police are looking for traffic infractions and stolen vehicles in the Ozarks.
File, Dismiss, Sue, Repeat: The Case for Dismantling Iowa's Public Information Board
The Iowa Public Information Board was created to resolve disputes and enforce transparency. In nearly 14 years, it hasn't.
The Column Disappeared. So Did the Explanation.
A newly surfaced email exchange reveals that Condor cameras silently generated vehicle data in August 2025. Flock blamed unreleased feature work. No one was formally notified.
Lorem Ipsum Is the Most Honest Thing on Flock's Trust Center
Flock launched a half-finished Trust Center full of placeholder text and unvetted claims — an unintentional demonstration of the access control failures it was built to deny.
Flock's Hot Lists are a Hot Mess
800 custom hotlist entries from a Texas constable's office reveal vague reasons, indefinite surveillance, and instructions to manufacture probable cause.
Flock's FreeForm Free-For-All
An analysis of 3,217 FreeForm search logs from 124 agencies reveals that Flock's "content moderation" blocks constitutionally sound searches while approving nationwide dragnets targeting military affiliation, political expression, and people wearing jeans.
The Bill That Hides the Evidence
Iowa's proposed ALPR bill was copied from Virginia's. Virginia proved it doesn't work.
Consumer Data Protection: California Plus, Compliance Minus
Flock's boilerplate denial doesn't survive the statute it claims to follow.