Flock Cameras Hiding In Plain Site
San Francisco activists have been adding “Flock Camera” signs around the city to point out nearby surveillance cameras. I noticed a couple of these signs near our house recently, and honestly, I hadn’t noticed these particular cameras before.
That sent me to DeFlock, a crowdsourced map of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers, where I was surprised to find there are at least 15 Flock cameras within a few blocks of our house.
Too Many Flocks
San Francisco first added 400 Flock cameras in 2024, and that number continues to grow. The controversy around these cameras continues to grow too:
“Automated License Plate Readers [ALPRs] are a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Your driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It’s typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide (secretly). Once the data is out of your community, you have no control over how it’s used or what rules apply, leading to instances of misuse.”
— statement from DeFlock.org
As Flock style ALPRs have fallen under heavy public scrutiny, Flock has attempted to change the narrative by pushing false claims that these cameras drastically reduce crime and help solve crimes. Flock representatives have also been accused of misleading public officials about what other data these systems collect about citizens.
Despite these claims being disproved, local politicians like Manny Yekutiel have argued that surveillance cameras can help solve crimes:
“Technology like cameras are proven to help solve crimes and slow down reckless drivers on our streets, but I won’t support any of it if that data ends up with ICE or the federal government, full stop.”
— Manny Yekutiel, as reported by Mission Local
While Flock cameras have not been proven to solve crimes, Manny does bring up an interesting point about the safety effects of speed cameras… so lets take a quick detour:
Flock VS Speed Cameras
San Francisco has 33 speed cameras installed, and the data does show that these have had a dramatic effect, reducing speeding by 79% in some of the city’s most dangerous intersections.
But Flock-style ALPRs are very different from speed cameras.
Speed cameras measure vehicle speed and record license plates on vehicles that are speeding. They are designed for a specific traffic-safety purpose and only photograph vehicles after they’ve broken the law thus cannot be used for warrantless surveillance. Flock cameras, on the other hand, capture everything in their view and can be used to track any vehicle or even people. Flock cameras also capture nearby mobile phones, wearables, and other Bluetooth-enabled devices. All of this data can later be accessed by police departments, the federal government, or even Flock to spy on citizens, without needing a warrant.
That distinction matters because a speed camera can tell you that a particular vehicle was speeding at a particular location. An ALPR network can potentially build a record of where that vehicle or person has been.
There’s also a big difference in how many of these types of cameras are around.
According to OPGov.news, there are now more than 500 Flock cameras in San Francisco, and there is no hard cap on how many could eventually be added. In contrast, there are only 33 speed cameras in San Francisco, and that number is strictly limited under local law.
The only way to prevent San Franciscans’ data from being abused by “ICE or the federal government” is never to capture that data in the first place. Privately run ALPRs like Flock, Axon, and Motorola are fundamentally incompatible with a free and democratic society.
Predictive Policing and Failed Results
Recently, 404 Media broke news of a secretive DHS program called PITT, Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams, which analyzes Americans’ financial data to possibly mark them as people of interest. DHS then encourages local police to create a pretext to pull these targets over and search them.
They aren’t suspects in the legal sense. An algorithm has simply decided that if police pull them over, they’ll probably find something illegal.
Imagine the damage this predictive policing unit could do with Flock’s massive database of license plates, Bluetooth signals, and facial recognition. Someone who visits a particular address, attends a protest, is near someone who’s under investigation, or is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time could be targetted for further scrutiny.
And this isn’t just theoretical. Lindsey Brooke Isaacs was wrongfully arrested and jailed for 13 days after Flock misidentified her as a suspect in a fatal hit-and-run. Despite witnesses describing a different color car and license plate number, Florida police found Lindsey’s car in Flock’s database on a nearby road a few minutes from the accident. They used Flock’s footage to arrest her and charge her with eight felonies.
That night, Flock helped police put the wrong person in jail and possibly derailed the investigation all together.
A sign Of The Times
I’m glad folks had taken the time to make these “Flock Camera” signs because I hadn’t noticed these cameras before.
Now I notice them everywhere.
