this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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Please do not call these devices license plate readers. They are surveillance tools with capabilities that far exceed that of normal license plate reading devices. It’s like calling an RPG a spear.
I’m curious why the flock cameras are worse than the “traffic observation cameras” that went up on top of every traffic light in like 2007. I was pretty upset about those at the time, but I never found any other push back.
Not many people upset about the cop cars becoming mobile license plate readers either.
Flock is selling software called freeform which tracks people's movements. I don't know if it can be used on their current cameras or if they need upgrades or new cameras.
Also, flock was planning to use stolen information from a hack against a parking lot company until a news story came out about it. Flock got ahold of the hacked data, that included license plates and names on credit cards, and was planning to use it to identify car owners. After news stories released they said they would not use it but it shows that they are a shady company.
It's just a loss of privacy. Those old cameras captured plates but now there are flock cameras everywhere and the data they capture is searchable nationwide. The data is being used by ICE to find people they want to arrest. There is little oversight of their use. If police want to track your phone they have to get a warrant and show it to your phone carrier. If they want to track your car they just look it up in flock. A lot of police officers are using flock lookups for their own personal use, like to track people they know.