What the Flock is happening with license plate readers?

ALPRs, or Automatic License Plate Readers, have moved from novelty to near-ubiquitous presence, with Flock Safety’s systems described as scanning every plate that passes and streaming footage to off-site servers for a growing cloud database. At the time of writing there are well over 100,000 Flock cameras installed in the United States, roughly one camera for every 4,000 citizens, and each camera tends to track more vehicles on average than before.

Flock says its records focus on license plates and cars rather than faces, but the data are stored off-site and accessed by what it calls “authorised users” under permissions or warrants, raising privacy concerns for many residents. The article notes a typical data retention period of 30 days, after which footage is automatically deleted unless flagged in an active investigation, and stresses that the system can reveal detailed patterns about daily life beyond merely identifying suspects.

While proponents point to potential crime-detection benefits, the piece underscores ongoing debates about surveillance creep, data security, and transparency, according to Malwarebytes.