LAPD Drops Flock Safety Contract as Backlash Against AI Surveillance Grows Nationwide

The Los Angeles Police Department’s decision to end its three-year contract with an Atlanta-based surveillance company, Flock Safety, marks one of the most significant blows yet to the controversial company behind a nationwide network of AI-powered license plate readers and police surveillance drones. The decision by America’s second largest city to end the deal with Flock Safety — first reported by ABC7 and the Los Angeles Times — signals a deepening national reckoning over the use of automated surveillance technology by law enforcement and federal immigration officials.LAPD spokesman Dean Gialamas made the department’s position clear in a statement to ABC: “This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras. The LAPD had to make a difficult decision, in this case discontinuing using Flock services until we can get those data, privacy, security, and sharing concerns ironed out through a contractual relationship.”Shortly after the LAPD announcement, 404 Media revealed that an internal police audit had found the department’s Flock cameras generated 161 false stolen-vehicle alerts in just two months. With 337 alerts leading to legitimate vehicle recoveries during the same period, the cameras carried an error rate of 32.3 percent — effectively giving officers a one-in-three chance of pulling over an innocent driver.“In addition to creating an inconvenience for vehicle owners, these inaccuracies can affect individual liberty interests, erode public trust, and potentially create substantial legal and financial liability concerns,” reads an audit by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Office of the Inspector General.Flock Safety, which operates a network of at least 80,000 cameras in more than 5,000 communities across the United States, appears to have been caught by “surprise” by the break in the contract. Spokesman Holly Beilin told TechCrunch the company was confident it could “clear up the current misconceptions” behind the decision, without specifying what those misconceptions were.Flock, valued at $7.5 billion, has frequently cited its cameras and drones for deterring or even stopping a crime as it is happening. Last week alone, the company listed the arrest of a murder suspect, a child abductor, and a burglary suspect among police actions assisted by the technology.The timing of the announcement is striking. Just days earlier, journalist Joel Feder of The Drive reported that he was swarmed by armed police in Minnesota after a Flock camera erroneously flagged his borrowed Range Rover as stolen — tracking him for days before officers boxed him in. More than 55 localities have ended contracts with Flock in the past year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, citing concerns that the company’s data has been accessed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. Cities including Mountain View, California, and South Portland, Maine, have severed ties with Flock, with some — like Dayton, Ohio and Evanston, Illinois — resorting to covering cameras with black trash bags while negotiating their contract exits.In Virginia, two Flock cameras were spray-painted in Arlington County in late May, reflecting a broader trend of public resistance. Arlington immigration attorney Kelley Ortega told WUSA9 that fears over federal data-sharing are fueling the vandalism: “ICE, or the Department of Homeland Security, could very well request or access this data.” Others, however, argue the backlash is overblown. “I think the police need these tools,” the president of Virginians for Safe Communities, Sean Kennedy, told WUSA9. “This vandalism or any type of vigilante action against these license plate readers is unwarranted.”Meanwhile, Maine lawmakers have launched a push for a statewide ban on Flock cameras. Republican Representative Quentin Chapman warned, “Flock cameras represent an unprecedented expansion of government surveillance that threatens the privacy and civil liberties of every Mainer. Auburn families should not have to accept constant monitoring simply for driving on our streets,” the Maine Morning Star reported.“This petition gives our residents a direct voice in deciding whether these cameras belong in our city,” he said.

LAPD Drops Flock Safety Contract as Backlash Against AI Surveillance Grows Nationwide

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