Resistance to Flock Safety camera network grows in the US
In Houston, US, four Flock Safety surveillance cameras were damaged and cut down at night in late July in the Old Braeswood neighborhood. Similar cases of vandalism against cameras with artificial intelligence systems have also been recorded in Minnesota, California and Georgia, BBC News reports.
Founded in 2017, Flock Safety produces automated license plate recognition systems. The cameras photograph the rear of every passing vehicle, and the records are stored for a specified period. The company says it works with more than 7,000 communities in the US and has around 100,000 cameras installed.
Access to a large network
Critics fear not only individual cameras, but also the ability of law enforcement agencies to gain access to a large network of devices. In particular, Houston's METRO transit authority has 35 cameras of its own, but according to documents, it can use approximately 20,000 devices in the Flock network, including cameras in Albany County, New York.
In the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, a typical license plate search in April 2024 covered around 270 camera networks. In April 2025, this figure rose to about 500, and in April 2026, 20% of searches were conducted across more than 6,000 networks.
Christopher Rivera, a representative of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said such databases can track people's daily routes, including trips to work, schools or places of worship.
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Abuse and the company's position
Last week, a police officer from Kentucky was charged after using the Flock system more than 2,000 times to track an ex-girlfriend who had obtained a protective order. According to the BBC, suspicious use was detected by Flock's mandatory AI-based audit tool.
In 2025, a detective in Johnson County, Texas, viewed more than 80,000 images without a warrant while trying to find a woman suspected of having had an abortion. Flock does not use facial recognition, but documents obtained by the BBC indicate that the Harris County Sheriff's Office, which covers Houston, uses Clearview AI technology. The county's contract with Clearview AI runs until March 2027.
Memorial Villages Police Chief Ray Schulz called the cameras a useful tool for fighting crime. According to him, after his department acquired the Flock system, the average number of stolen vehicles recovered by it rose from three to 45 per year. He also stressed the need for clear rules on using the system and accountability for abuse.
According to the civil rights group Secure Justice, since 2021 more than 200 communities have canceled or failed to renew contracts with Flock, including 90 in August alone. Flock Safety CEO and founder Garrett Langley said decisions on data retention periods and data sharing should be made by individual cities. The company reduced its standard data retention period from 30 to seven days if records are not flagged as part of an investigation.
