LAPD ends contract with surveillance giant Flock Safety

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is reportedly ending its deal with Flock Safety, a company whose network of license plate cameras helps law enforcement agencies track vehicles across the United States. The LAPD’s three-year contract with Flock is set to expire this Saturday, and the department will not renew it. Dean Gialamas, LAPD’s chief information officer, said: “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.” Gialamas added that the department chose to discontinue using Flock’s services until those data, privacy, security and sharing concerns can be resolved through a contractual relationship. As the third-largest police department in the U.S., the LAPD is one of Flock’s largest government customers.

Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin said the timing of the contract’s end caught the Atlanta, Georgia-based company by surprise, and that Flock was confident it could clear up what it described as misconceptions behind the decision, without specifying which ones. The LAPD’s move follows similar exits by other U.S. cities, including Mountain View, California and South Portland, Maine, which have cited privacy worries and concerns tied to sanctuary city policies — local laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement — after reports that federal agents used Flock’s cameras to track people. Flock operates at least 80,000 cameras around the U.S. and has placed thousands of its license plate cameras across the United States.

The non-renewal comes amid mounting scrutiny of Flock’s practices. The company has faced security lapses that have exposed cameras and data, and lawmakers have urged federal consumer authorities to investigate Flock for failing to implement measures that would prevent hackers and spies from gaining access to its security cameras. Separately, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used a local police officer’s password without their knowledge to search for a suspect accused of an immigration violation, according to independent outlet 404 Media, which separately found it could watch itself live on publicly exposed Flock cameras. There has also been an increase in documented cases of motorists being pulled over, detained, and held at gunpoint by police, or jailed, due to false positives and errors with license plate readers — including a journalist with The Drive who was tracked for days and boxed-in by police last week due to a false positive.

Why it matters

As the third-largest police department in the U.S., the LAPD’s exit is a major blow to Flock Safety and signals growing institutional resistance to automated surveillance systems amid civil rights and security concerns.