Every now and again, against all odds, there is some good news to be had in the ongoing assault on our privacy in the midst of an overwhelming trend of permanent electronic surveillance of citizens by law enforcement.
Such seemed to be the case this week when the the Los Angeles Police Department, citing privacy and data ownership concerns, ended its agreement to use Flock Safety license plate readers. It was the right thing to do.
In 2023, as our Nathaniel Percy reports, the department signed a three-year agreement with the company to install 138 of its pole-mounted cameras within the city.That agreement expired last Saturday, July 11.
Those cameras capture images of vehicles and license plates on roadways. That sounds innocent enough, to some people, at least. Others understand that this is a very slippery slope toward government data-gathering in every aspect of our lives, and that the protestations about their commitment to privacy protections by the companies making money off of these intrusions are weak tea indeed. As are the assurances of their control over the data by police departments that have purchased Flock and other such spyware.
The particular concerns about the LAPD’s use of Flock cameras came after an October 2025 report by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights said Flock had tested an information-sharing program that allowed federal agencies to access license plate data collected by local agencies without knowledge or consent from those agencies.
That’s why other California jurisdictions, including South Pasadena, have either suspended or ended entirely their Flock contracts. But the LAPD is a much bigger and more influential entity. It was to be hoped that its example would help local law enforcement agencies follow suit.
But then the Los Angeles Times reported this week that the department is instead negotiating a new deal with Flock that includes more supposed ”safeguards.” Alarmingly, the LAPD said Flock cameras ”are still operating in the city, but the department no longer has regular access to the data that is being gathered.”
Given its past behavior, we don’t trust the company. End the Flock contract now, once and for all.