Topic
Cameras that photograph every passing car, and the networks that decide who gets to search the images. Flock Safety, preventing misuse, auditing the police, and where your license plate location data ends up.
The biggest network belongs to Flock Safety, whose default settings make a city's cameras searchable by agencies nationwide unless someone turns that off. Our reporting here runs from St. Louis Park's audit logs to the biennial Minnesota audits that are supposed to keep these systems honest.
September 4, 2026·2 min read
The Minneapolis Police Department is buying mobile license plate readers, the kind mounted on squad cars, and paying for them with forfeiture money. An internal MPD email from a commander in the Administrative Services D
August 29, 2026·3 min read
Minnesota Statute 13.824 requires every police department running an automated license plate reader to arrange an independent audit every two years. The results go to the commissioner of administration and the Legislativ
August 23, 2026·3 min read
Minnesota law requires an independent audit of every police license plate reader program every two years. The audit exists to create a public record: results go to the Commissioner of Administration and the Legislative C
August 22, 2026·2 min read
Two searches of St. Louis Park Police Department's Flock Safety cameras, run in October 2025 by the North Missouri Drug Task Force through Brookfield MO PD, each reached 25,263 networks. A normal nationwide lookup at the
August 20, 2026·2 min read
Flock told its law enforcement customers in March that agencies sharing data federally "may receive a data sharing request from the FBI in the coming days," then followed up a week later with a ready-made Q&A for city co
August 16, 2026·2 min read
When Capitola PD received a records request about its Flock cameras, Flock sent the department a guide on exemptions, redactions, and fees, then put its legal and external affairs staff on a call with the city the next d
August 8, 2026·3 min read
Capitola's police chief negotiated a signed amendment barring Flock Safety from disclosing city data or changing the camera system without her permission, and told the company to expect more amendments at renewal.
August 3, 2026·2 min read
At least 25 California law enforcement agencies, from Imperial County on the Mexico border to San Bernardino County, asked to search a ten-camera beach town's Flock network in ten weeks. Capitola was sharing with five.
July 27, 2026·2 min read
An April 2026 email from a Flock Safety representative to Oshkosh, Wisconsin police leadership lays out three separate vehicle counts. The public sees the smallest one.
July 22, 2026·2 min read
Flock Safety's Transparency Portal is the company's public accountability showcase. It is a page where a police department publishes live figures on how it uses its license plate readers, including a search audit that li
July 19, 2026·4 min read
City payment records released through MuckRock show a $1,228,000 purchase of Flock's drone-as-first-responder hardware and software. San Francisco's surveillance technology inventory does not list it.
May 28, 2026·1 min read
Arvada PD's Policy 460 (effective June 11, 2025) states in its data retention section that mobile ALPR data "is also retained by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, per agreement with the Arvada Police Department." The department
May 15, 2026·1 min read
Initial review of CT state contracts suggests LPR data sharing occurs through a different channel than the standard AVCC/PSDEX pipeline. Needs deeper FOIA + contract analysis to confirm whether CT is contributing, bypass
May 13, 2026·1 min read
Reviewing DHS BSIR grant language for FY2025 — several cities used grant funds explicitly for 'interoperable data sharing platforms compatible with national LPR networks.' This may represent a previously undocumented fed
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