The case for Flock cameras

In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here. It has become popular to dump on Flock cameras, with both the Left and the Right fueling a movement away from the technology. Lost in all of this is what Flock cameras actually do, and how well they work when it comes to taking down real criminals.It is no surprise that the political Left opposes Flock cameras — anything that makes life more difficult for criminals is something that left-wing politicians oppose. The Democratic Party movement against ShotSpotter, a form of technology that alerts police to gunfire in neighborhoods, makes that obvious. But Republicans have now also put Flock in their crosshairs, with normally tough-on-crime states such as Texas and Florida beginning to block or dismantle Flock infrastructure. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is among those leading a charge to investigate Flock Safety and its data collection and storage. JOHN JAMES THREADS NEEDLE ON FLOCK CAMERA BACKLASH IN MICHIGAN: ‘BALANCE IS THE KEY’The objection to Flock cameras stems from two factors. The first is that the cameras, which are automated license plate readers used to locate vehicles driven by criminals or suspects in serious crimes, are powered by artificial intelligence. This makes them inherently controversial in our anti-AI, anti-data center (Chinese-influenced) environment. The second, more notable criticism stems from the idea that Flock cameras (and other competing license plate readers) are a form of mass surveillance that is, or someday will be, rife with government abuse.Flock Safety has already taken steps to assuage those surveillance concerns. The company introduced a new security measure that flags abnormal usage of the cameras, such as the few cases where police officers have used them to stalk ex-girlfriends. All searches are now required to be tied to a case number. Flock Safety also introduced several features it now recommends to its customers (the cities that utilize Flock cameras), including limiting data storage from 30 days to seven days (allowing longer storage for active investigations) and allowing cities to restrict what crimes outside police departments can search for in their jurisdictions.As Flock explains it, “City A could allow City B to search its cameras only for a stolen vehicle, missing person, or violent crime while blocking searches related to immigration enforcement.”With those safeguards in place, it does not make sense to adopt or reject this technology on what a few criminal police officers do with it. If we did that with every policing tool, there would be no policing tools left. At the end of the day, these cameras are AI-powered license plate readers that function in a similar fashion to red light and speeding cameras, installed on public roads or in public spaces where cars drive or park.In order to evaluate the trade-offs that follow the already-addressed “mass surveillance” concerns, we have to look at what Flock cameras and other license plate readers actually accomplish.Crucially, these cameras are not red light speed cameras. They are not used to ring up drivers for traffic infractions. Flock cameras essentially function as CCTV cameras, with the tracking element automated by artificial intelligence. The Investigation Discovery show See No Evil offers examples of what the policing process looks like pre-Flock, as it follows police officers who use surveillance footage to solve homicide cases. Some episodes will show officers going to a business to catch a glimpse of a suspicious vehicle on camera, determine what direction it is moving, and move to the next business in that vehicle’s path to check more camera footage. This process can end up being repeated multiple times, costing manpower and valuable time.Flock automates that process, recording the license plate of the suspicious vehicle and flagging it on each camera that it passes. The result is that more criminals can be caught, and done so in a faster time frame. A study on the efficacy of Flock cameras found that motor vehicle thefts fell by 11% after their deployment, while motor vehicle arrest clearance rates increased 15.9%. This is a substantial success, given that motor vehicle theft is among the most difficult crimes to clear.But automated license plate readers, like Flock’s cameras, are useful for solving violent crimes as well. Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute has built a database of documented Flock successes, which includes Flock cameras being used to solve 76 homicides and 105 shootings in 2026 alone. Flock cameras have also been used 31 times this year to arrest fugitives, and 59 times to locate missing or abducted persons. The missing and abducted cases range from locating elderly people who have been reported missing, such as the Georgia man with dementia who was found driving within six minutes of the report, to children abducted by sexual predators, such as the 12-year-old South Carolina girl who was kidnapped after being groomed on social media and found in Arkansas.The Arkansas case is a perfect example of the Flock-less process mentioned earlier. According to local media, “Between 10 and 15 deputies and investigators went door to door and contacted businesses along the highway, searching for recordings that could help identify” the Chevrolet Malibu for which they were searching. It was a Flock camera that found the vehicle and identified its license plate, informing investigators that the driver was from Arkansas and that the car was passing through Alabama, heading west, toward Arkansas. The girl was found within two hours of officers confirming the information Flock had given them.Without Flock cameras, local law enforcement would have had to continue going door to door to businesses along the highway, searching for a camera recording that showed enough of the car’s license plate to identify the vehicle. It could have taken days under this method. It may not have worked at all.HOW FLOCK CAMERAS HELP LEAD ICE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTSBut, using Flock cameras, they found the 12-year-old girl and the accused predator who abducted her four states over within 24 hours. According to Spartanburg County Sheriff Bill Rhyne, they could have closed the case within seven hours if one of their local Flock cameras hadn’t been vandalized, likely by activists driven by the anti-Flock hysteria that is currently gripping our politics.Flock cameras are not perfect. They are not infallible, a fact that some incompetent police officers need to learn. Hard limits do need to be put in place to prevent them from being used for basic traffic enforcement sometime in the future. However, ALPRs, such as Flock cameras, are incredibly effective law enforcement tools, ones that will make it easier to find missing or abducted people or children, find stolen vehicles, and get violent criminals, including murderers, off the street.