Flock Safety

Flock Safety is an American company that sells Automated License Plate Recognition technology (ALPR) to law enforcement agencies and neighbourhood associations. The cameras read license plates and sent instant alerts to law enforcement officers when the cameras identify license plates that match those on lists of cars that are stolen or otherwise of interest to the police. Private citizens and businesses who own one of Flock's cameras can use their own hot lists. Unlike many other ALPR systems, Flock cameras allow searches based on the car's color and various other visual features. History Flock was founded in 2017. As of February 2022, Flock's fixed cameras have been installed in over 1,500 cities across the US. In 2023, Atlanta police (Cobb County) credited a Flock license plate recognition system for helping them track down a gunman. Controversy There is speculation that the system may cause harm, especially to minorities. There are also privacy concerns. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that ALPRs like Flock may create more problems than they solve. Flock Safety cameras and technology only captures data from vehicles and the machine learning is specifically designed not to identify people. Although Flock Safety claims their cameras reduce crime, opponents argue that there is no clear evidence for this. The American Civil Liberties Union released a report in March 2022 criticising both Flock Safety's business model and its products.