Law enforcement used Flock Safety license plate readers to surveil protesters
Law enforcement agencies including U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations used Flock Safety automated license plate readers to track vehicles at protests and specifically target activist groups, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation analysis. Mountlake Terrace city council voted to cancel its contract with Flock Safety citing community division and public records concerns.
What happened
Law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations, accessed Flock Safety automated license plate reader networks to track vehicles. According to analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of 10 months of searches on Flock Safety's servers, more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches through Flock's national surveillance network in connection with protest activity, with some agencies specifically targeting known activist groups.
Reported impact
Community concerns grew over misuse of Flock technology. Mountlake Terrace's city council cited community division and public records concerns when voting unanimously on Thursday, December 5, 2025, to cancel the city's contract with Flock Safety, despite the city still owing $27,000 for the first year of the two-year $54,000 contract.
Index analysis
Flock Safety installs automated license plate reader cameras throughout law enforcement jurisdictions that capture license plates, vehicle color, make, model and distinguishing characteristics paired with time and location data. This data is uploaded to a searchable national database that Flock Safety encourages agencies to share broadly with other agencies.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.