Fourth Amendment

Getting Rid of Flock Isn't Enough To Solve America's Surveillance Problem

Civil liberties advocates warn that Americans’ privacy and surveillance concerns won’t be solved without strong legal protections.

Autumn Billings | 8.27.2026 4:42 PM

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Flock Safety is feeling the heat from ongoing public backlash against the company's controversial surveillance technology. Amid mounting contract cancellations and anti-Flock vigilantes targeting automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras across the country, CEO Garrett Langley appeared on Fox News earlier this week beseeching a national "compromise" to save the company from efforts to ban the technology outright. 

But while many privacy advocates may relish seeing Flock on the run, civil liberties experts warn against losing sight of what truly matters: passing strong legal protections that outlive Flock's dominance. 

The attention on Flock is certainly justified. As the largest provider of ALPRs, Flock has 120,000 cameras across 49 states, works with over 5,000 law enforcement agencies, and captures more than 20 billion license plate scans every month. But Flock is far from the only ALPR provider in town. And while........

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