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Cities ditch license plate readers over privacy worries
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+ By
Jude Joffe-Block
A Flock Safety license plate reader is seen last year along a public road in Houston.
− Concerns about privacy and federal immigration agents can access local data are driving these debates.
+ David Goldman/Associated Press hide caption
The use of automatic license plate readers has exploded across the country in recent years.
− National Cities ditch license plate readers over privacy worries February 17, 20265:10 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Jude Joffe-Block Flock License Plate Readers Listen · 3:56 3:56 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5612825/nx-s1-9652759" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Cities around the country are debating whether to keep their automatic license plate readers. Concerns about privacy and federal immigration agents can access local data are driving these debates. Sponsor Message
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A tool that has been used to solve crimes now faces a backlash. For years, the number of automatic license plate readers has been growing steadily, but President Trump's immigration crackdown has some cities and towns across the country worried that these devices pose privacy risks for residents. We're joined now by NPR's Jude Joffe-Block, who's been following all of this. Hi, Jude.
+ The cameras on roads and freeways that take images of the back of passing cars are popular with police for solving crimes.
− JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK, BYLINE: Hi.
+ But as President Trump's immigration enforcement crackdown has escalated in recent months, residents of various American cities are urging local leaders to stop using these cameras, citing fears of mass surveillance and concerns that local data could be aiding a federal deportation dragnet.
− CHANG: Hi.
+ Many of the grassroots campaigns have targeted cameras made by Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that has contracts with more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the country.
− OK.
+ Some cities have grappled with the issue and decided to keep their cameras due to public safety, but in a number of places, the pressure has worked.
The liberal college towns of Flagstaff, Ariz., Cambridge, Mass., Eugene, Ore.
− First just remind all of us how an automatic license plate reader generally works.
+ and Santa Cruz, Calif., are among a list of at least 30 localities that have either deactivated their Flock cameras or canceled their contracts since the beginning of 2025 – with much of the activity happening in just the last three months.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah.
+ "We are seeing a lot more momentum," said Will Freeman, a Colorado-based activist who opposes the cameras and runs the DeFlock.me website, which through crowdsourcing has mapped the locations of more than 76,000 license plate readers across the country.
− Well, these are cameras on roads that scan license plates and vehicles.
+ "I expect there to be more cities dropping Flock."
Police have praised license plate readers for helping officers track down stolen cars and find criminal suspects.
− So if police are searching for a car that's possibly tied to a crime, they can query the network to potentially find it. That's how police say they tracked down the Brown University shooting suspect back in December. But since the beginning of last year, some 30 cities and towns have stopped using these systems.
+ The cameras have been credited with assisting in solving high profile crimes, including locating the body of the Brown University shooting suspect at a New Hampshire storage facility in December.
− CHANG: And what are city leaders saying about why they're opting out?
+ Flock's AI-powered cameras scan license plates as well as vehicles' identifying details, such as make, model and color, that police can use as search terms.
− Like, what are they worried about specifically?
+ Flock operates a national network of this data that police can query to track the location of specific vehicles, far beyond their own city limits.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah.
+ One of the main issues that has come up in debates over Flock cameras are questions about who can potentially access the data local cameras record.
Flock says cities control their sharing settings.
− Well, these cities all contracted with Flock Safety.
+ "Each Flock customer has sole authority over if, when, and with whom information is shared," the company wrote in an email to NPR.
− It's one of the main vendors of these cameras, and Flock also operates a network for this data that agencies all over the country can search.
+ Records are created showing which agency initiated a search, and for what stated purpose.
But many city officials have realized after the fact that they were sharing their data more broadly than they had known, and that federal agencies, including U.S.
− And Flock says cities decide how broadly to share that data.
+ Border Patrol, had searched their data.
Flock says it made changes over the last year to "strengthen sharing controls, oversight and audit capabilities within the system."
Town officials in Hillsborough, North Carolina announced in October they had ended their relationship with Flock after "town leaders became concerned about language that could be interpreted as allowing Flock Safety to disclose data to any government entity or third party if the company had a 'good faith belief' of a need to do so."
Late last year, the Flagstaff Police Department responded to growing community concerns about Flock cameras by tightening up the city's data sharing controls.
− But many cities with Flock contracts learned they'd been sharing nationally without realizing it - in some cases with federal agencies. Last year, Flock also had pilot programs with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security investigations that the company later acknowledged it had not communicated clearly about. And this frustrated Susie O'Hara. She's a city council member in Santa Cruz, California.
+ The department removed the city's data from both Flock's national and state-wide lookup networks, and instead opted to only share data with two local agencies.
− SUSIE O'HARA: I was very dissatisfied with a multibillion-dollar company continuing to make mistakes and putting our local data at risk.
+ The police department also changed its data retention period to 14 days, down from 30.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: And then when Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent last month in Minnesota, O'Hara said it felt urgent to make sure the city would not be tied to surveillance that could potentially aid the Trump administration's crackdown.
+ "It is such a valuable piece of technology that has worked," said Deputy Chief of Operations Collin Seay at a December city council meeting about whether to continue Flagstaff's contract for 36 Flock cameras.
But after the police presentation, the public comment period was dominated by residents sharing concerns about Flock.
"We do not support AI mass surveillance as the current federal administration is gathering and weaponizing data," said Flagstaff resident Michele James.
Another resident referenced an Electronic Frontier Foundation analysis that found a significant number of police departments had searched Flock's network in connection with protest activity.
− And she and other council members voted last month to end their Flock contract.
+ Multiple speakers brought up a report by the independent tech outlet, 404 Media, about Texas sheriff's deputies who searched for the car of a woman who had an abortion.
− CHANG: Wait.
+ Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett told NPR she initially hoped it would work to keep using the cameras with more guardrails in place, but she came to understand the community had lost trust in Flock.
"In the end, it was just clear that this wasn't going to be a technology that was going to be well received or that we could continue to use," Daggett said.
− If I'm driving and my car goes past one of these cameras, can federal immigration agents, like, track my location indefinitely?
+ The council voted to end their Flock contract.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Well, Flock says their pilot program with the Department of Homeland Security agencies has ended, and ICE can't directly access the platform.
+ Susie O'Hara, a city council member in Santa Cruz, Calif., was also growing increasingly concerned about her city's eight Flock cameras last year.
− CHANG: OK.
+ Santa Cruz was among a number of California cities that learned their local data had been shared with Flock's national network without city officials' knowledge or intent. It was alarming to some officials given that state laws forbid cities from sharing license plate data with federal or out-of-state agencies, or assisting federal immigration enforcement.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: But if you're driving in a city that's sharing their data with other police agencies, they could search on behalf of federal immigration agents.
+ People walk through downtown in Santa Cruz, Calif.
− Both officials and journalists have found evidence in search logs that suggest this is happening.
+ in 2024.
− And many wonder if the Department of Homeland Security could at some point subpoena Flock and demand this data.
CHANG: OK.
+ The city recently voted to end its contract with Flock for automated license plate cameras.
− So there's this concern about privacy and immigration agents getting access to these kinds of records.
+ Nic Coury/Associated Press hide caption
In August, Flock admitted to 9News in Denver that it had a pilot program with U.S.
− But these systems can be used to help solve crimes, right?
+ Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol.
− So how are cities balancing all those concerns?
+ The company's CEO Garrett Langley had previously denied the company had federal contracts.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah.
+ "[T]here have been conflicting reports in the media about Flock's relationship with federal agencies, and some of our public statements inadvertently provided inaccurate information," Langley later acknowledged in a statement.
− Some city officials are trying to keep their license plate readers in place but put stricter restrictions on data sharing.
+ "We clearly communicated poorly.
− In Flagstaff, Arizona, the mayor there, Becky Daggett, told me she had hoped that approach could work for her city.
BECKY DAGGETT: But ultimately, even the compromises and the guardrails that were put up around the technology here locally, the community just had too many concerns and too many questions about it.
JOFFE-BLOCK: You know, residents raised concerns about Flock data being used to track protesters, and several mentioned a report about a Texas sheriff's office using Flock to search for a woman who'd had an abortion.
+ We also didn't create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users."
The same statement acknowledged Flock also had a pilot program with Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
− And the city council voted to end their contract, too.
+ The statement said federal agencies would no longer be given access to state or nationwide lookup networks.
− CHANG: OK.
+ The pattern of revelations became frustrating to O'Hara.
− So how is Flock responding to this whole debate?
+ "I was very dissatisfied with a multibillion dollar company continuing to make mistakes and putting our local data at risk — and really against our Santa Cruz values," she told NPR.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Yeah.
+ O'Hara and others grew concerned they could not be sure their city data would not be used to aid federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Flock says its pilot programs with CBP and HSI have ended, and says Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have "direct access" to the Flock platform.
− The company points out that the number of new communities partnering with Flock outpaces the number that are not continuing.
+ But reviews of audit logs by researchers, journalists and officials have found local police departments appear to be conducting searches on behalf of federal agencies.
− And the company says it's made the sharing controls clearer for cities.
+ In such cases, the officer performing the search listed terms like "ICE" or "immigration" as the reason for performing the search.
O'Hara said Santa Cruz audits found some California police departments performing what appeared to be immigration-related searches, which she called "very concerning."
In an October statement, Flock said it had introduced keyword filters to "block attempts to search for terms related to civil immigration or reproductive healthcare where state law forbids it." Flock later added a dropdown menu that requires police to choose an "offense type" before they can search.
O'Hara was not impressed with that solution, since she worried police performing an immigration-related search could choose a more "palatable" option from the menu.
Another turning point for O'Hara came on Jan.
− But it's also worth noting that Flock CEO, Garrett Langley, has suggested the company's critics want to, quote, "normalize lawlessness." He's also called one group that opposes the cameras, quote, "terroristic." And such comments may have actually backfired a bit.
+ 7, the day Renee Macklin Good was killed in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.
− A couple local officials cited the CEO's rhetoric when they terminated their contracts.
+ That convinced her further that she did not want Santa Cruz to have anything to do with surveillance that could wind up as part of the Trump administration's crackdown.
− CHANG: That is NPR's Jude Joffe-Block.
+ "I have goosebumps on my arms thinking about the absolute chaos that was happening in Minneapolis," she said.
− Thank you, Jude.
+ "And just the absolute insanity of what we were seeing … It was totally clear to me that we should in no way consciously be in this system at all – just no way."
On Jan.13, the Santa Cruz city council voted to end their Flock contract, less than two years after it began.
− JOFFE-BLOCK: Thank you.
+ Flock has said the number of new law enforcement agencies partnering with the company significantly outpaces the number that are ending their agreements.
Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho in 2025.
− Copyright © 2026 NPR.
+ Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption
Langley, the company's CEO, has also had harsh words for some of the activists opposing Flock technology.
− All rights reserved.
+ He referred to DeFlock, the crowdsourced mapping project, as "terroristic," in a September video interview with Forbes.
− Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
+ Flock did not respond to a question asking why Langley had used that word.
Freeman of DeFlock told NPR, "I really didn't know what to say when I heard that accusation because the only thing we did was make a website mapping them out.
− Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary.
+ We encourage people to fight mass surveillance legally and respectfully."
The following month, in an email that went out to Flock customers, Langley wrote his company and partner law enforcement agencies are under "coordinated attack." He wrote the attacks come from "the same activist groups who want to defund the police, weaken public safety, and normalize lawlessness."
Those comments did not land well with Jim Williams, the police chief in Staunton, Virginia.
− Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio.
+ He wrote back to Langley disagreeing with the characterization.
"What we are seeing here is a group of local citizens who are raising concerns that we could be potentially surveilling private citizens, residents and visitors and using the data for nefarious purposes," Williams wrote.
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+ He added their efforts to seek answers about the technology, "is democracy in action."
The correspondence was included in a Staunton news release a few days later announcing the city was ending its Flock contract.
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