PODCAST:
Aug. 25, 2026 ~ Chris Renwick and Lloyd Jackson talk with ACLU Organizing Strategist Faith Saenz about Flock cameras. As they appear in more communities, are they there to keep people safe, or are they invading their privacy?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is raising privacy concerns about the mass surveillance network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) being established across the country, particularly the cameras made by the company Flock Safety.
Flock is the leading producer of ALPRs, which capture photos of license plates and vehicle details of every car driving on roadways, while recording data about the location, date, and time a vehicle’s image was captured, according to Flock’s website. These cameras are used primarily by local governments and police departments in criminal investigations to flag vehicles of interest, with 180 Michigan communities and police departments holding contracts with Flock. It is estimated that over 3,000 ALPRs have been installed so far in the state, according to the activist group DeFlock.
The ACLU has raised concerns over how the data these cameras collect could be used to invade people’s private lives by tracking them from houses of worship, protests, medical centers, and more. Flock surveillance systems have also been under scrutiny over instances of police officers abusing the technology across the country. A recent Washington Post report found at least 50 known cases of police officers who have used Flock cameras to track and stalk exes, romantic partners, or other women
ACLU Organizing Strategist Faith Saenz told WJR that while she thinks that there are some legitimate use cases for the cameras, she believes the cameras are limited in their effectiveness in fighting crime and does not justify the price tag or invasion of privacy.
“We see that they are actually blanketing our streets and storing this data without clear limits of transparency, and we recognize this as becoming a powerful tracking system,” Saenz said.
The backlash against Flock over the past year has manifested into acts of vandalism and destruction, including a recent incident from Winona, MN, where someone cut down and stole all eight of the Flock cameras in the town. City council meetings across the country have been swarmed with residents pushing back against contracts for ALPRs in their communities, including in Michigan. So far, the cities of Ferndale, Bay City, and Westland have either failed to pass contracts with Flock or cancelled them.
Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, previously addressed some of these concerns on WJR, saying that Flock cameras are effective tools for law enforcement and claimed that Flock has accountability checks built into their systems to detect abuses from law enforcement. Flock also recently reduced the default data retention from 30 days to 7 days to address privacy concerns.
However, Saenz said that these steps are not enough to quell public concerns.
“When we really think about those municipalities, what folks can have a deeper understanding with is that these contracts actually vary depending on city to county or county to city,” she said. “When folks are unaware of what their essential rights are simply when traveling from place to place, that definitely causes fear amongst what folks are seeing as their privacy concerns.”
Saenz said that the ACLU is pursuing Fourth Amendment-based challenges to Flock and other ALPR companies to put guardrails on the technology, alongside legislative regulations in Michigan.
