Story perspectives

Police Deploy 120,000 Flock ALPR Cameras; Lawmakers Push Ban

8/10/2026

Summary

Story summary

U.S. police are installing Flock Safety’s ALPRs, with 500 units in San Francisco and 120,000 cameras nationwide.
Flock serves over 5,000 agencies and contracts with about 40 % of U.S. law-enforcement departments.
Privacy groups call the system Orwellian while Oakland, California; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Pocatello, Idaho have vandalized the cameras.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) seek to withhold federal funds and ban the cameras.

History

Historical Context

After the September 11 attacks, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act in October 2001, granting agencies broad surveillance powers and prompting the NYPD to install more than 1,000 license-plate readers by 2005. That expansion created a legal precedent for today’s widespread ALPR deployment, now used by Flock Safety in San Francisco and 5,000 agencies, while Representatives Thomas Massie and Anna Paulina Luna seek to block federal funding.

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Story summary

U.S. police are installing Flock Safety’s ALPRs, with 500 units in San Francisco and 120,000 cameras nationwide.
Flock serves over 5,000 agencies and contracts with about 40 % of U.S. law-enforcement departments.
Privacy groups call the system Orwellian while Oakland, California; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Pocatello, Idaho have vandalized the cameras.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) seek to withhold federal funds and ban the cameras.

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