'Get the Flock Out': Nationwide Backlash Grows Against AI-Powered Surveillance Tech

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/flock-camera-backlash

‘Get the Flock Out’: Nationwide Backlash Grows Against AI-Powered Surveillance Tech

Since 2021, 82 Flock contracts have been canceled across 28 US states—39 of them during the first five months of this year alone.

BRETT WILKINS
Jul 03, 2026

Resistance is mounting across the United States against the increasing use of surveillance tech company Flock Safety’s cameras, with a growing number of cities canceling contracts as the artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers are quietly being installed in thousands of locations nationwide.

State and local police departments first used the Atlanta-based company’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems for standard law enforcement purposes, but they are now being employed for a much broader range of uses, including immigration-related searches and other actions supporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Trump administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown.

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Those uses include spying on constitutionally protected protest activity and enforcing abortion bans by tracking pregnant people’s travel across states—even ones in which the medical procedure is legal.

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According to the public information project Ban Flock Cameras, 82 Flock contracts were terminated across 28 states between August 2021 and May 2026, with 39 of those cancellations occurring in the first five months of 2026 alone.

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