Police are already utilizing license plate readers to monitor individuals.

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      Recently, we published an article about companies that operate automatic license plate readers selling the data they gather, and how this profit-driven surveillance is set to extend to tracking your digital signatures as well—from your smartphone to wearable devices and even your car's infotainment system. No license plate? No worries, thanks to a product named SignalTrace, which certainly gives a clear indication of its purpose.

      To complicate matters further, 404 media released two additional reports highlighting police misconduct related to an existing, widely used camera system called Flock. You may be familiar with it; the company has contracts with various state and local governments across the nation to provide passive video surveillance of public areas.

      "Flock connects communities, businesses, and public safety to ensure incidents are clearly understood and decisions are made based on facts," states the company's homepage.

      It also claims "Privacy first," and includes a somewhat prominent link to Flock's data privacy policies. This appears to be friendly and open, right? Sadly, Flock’s history of safeguarding that data (and even its unprocessed camera feeds) is quite poor. Last month, independent journalists uncovered that Flock had exposed both personal details and related search queries entered by police via multiple search engines.

      This compromised data was compiled into a searchable database called HaveIBeenFlocked, where you can check if your license plate has been queried through Flock’s database—and in certain instances, see the reasons behind it.

      This could be more significant than one might realize, since law enforcement isn’t solely using Flock for their official duties. Several officers have been found misusing Flock data to stalk both acquaintances and strangers. One officer in Florida misused Flock’s license plate lookup to stalk his ex-girlfriend and her family for several months in 2024; another in Missouri conducted 542 "test" searches over ten months to track both his wife's vehicle and another unidentified car.

      A group named “Deflock Joplin” compiled this timeline using HaveIBeenFlocked; when the pattern was reported to the Joplin Police Department, the allegations were properly investigated:

      "In December 2025, the Joplin Police Department was notified of a potential policy violation by one of its personnel regarding the improper use of a departmental resource, specifically, the Flock license plate reader (LPR) system,” stated the Joplin PD. “An internal investigation was promptly initiated by the Joplin Police Department’s Office of Internal Affairs. The officer under investigation was quickly placed on administrative leave while our internal inquiry was conducted.”

      Don’t worry; it wasn’t just a paid vacation, although the specifics of his departure weren’t detailed, the officer “is no longer employed by the City of Joplin.”

      Flock informed 404 Media in June that it was aware of 15 instances of police misuse of its database and claimed credit for exposing the offenders.

      An automated license plate reader is observed mounted on a pole on June 13, 2024, in San Francisco, California.

      "There are also 140,000 active users of Flock monthly, so while the rare cases of misuse are unequivocally wrong and terrible, those instances are indeed rare," a Flock spokesperson conveyed to the outlet.

      “Humans are fallible; unlike most tools provided to law enforcement, Flock guarantees that in situations where our technology is misused, the evidence to hold responsible parties accountable is right there in our system,” the spokesperson added. “We also urge all our clients to implement a usage policy, provide regular training, and utilize our Audit Assistance tool, which proactively identifies unintended usage.”

      In other words, Flock equips users with the necessary tools for proper oversight of its system. Whether police departments bother to utilize those tools, monitor their reports, or act on any findings is entirely out of the company’s control.

      What will Flock do? “Terminate” a valued customer for not maximizing the product’s use? Imagine that scenario in capitalism; pickup trucks would be as scarce as honest politicians.

      Regardless of where you reside in the United States, there’s a good chance Flock (or a similar system) is either already in place or being tested nearby. In today’s Internet of Things, you no longer need a license plate to be tracked, nor must you be in a vehicle to be targeted.

      Welcome to the future.

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