Flock Camera Abuse: Research Digest

Date saved: 2026-10-25 03:01 (PDT)

Sources: The Fresno Bee, The Drive, Washington Post, CNN, TechCrunch, ABC7 News Bay Area, Boston25 News, FOX 5 Atlanta, San Jose Spotlight, NBC San Diego, Texas Scorecard

Key findings

Fresno officer under investigation for Flock misuse and database abuse

The Fresno Bee (October 22, 2026): A police department in California opened an investigation into an unnamed officer accused of abusing Flock Safety cameras and misusing the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) database for reasons not connected to any criminal investigation. The Fresno Office of Independent Review released its first report in 14 months on October 22, and Internal Affairs began the investigation on September 8 after the department detected the misuse through enhanced audit features on August 25. The officer was also accused of failing to activate a body-worn camera during a traffic stop and was placed on paid administrative leave. The case remained open as of this week. (Source)

Plymouth cancels Flock contract and the company ignores it

The Drive (October 23, 2026): A city council in Massachusetts voted to cancel its Flock contract on September 22 after Flock cameras wrongly flagged a resident and triggered a wrongful ambush by four police officers. A month later, the Flock cameras were still installed and the company had not acknowledged the cancellation. Plymouth Police Chief Eric Fadden suspended all user accounts on September 23 and sent a formal cancellation letter, but received no reply from Flock Safety Corporate or Legal. After more than a week of silence, Fadden directed staff to disconnect the power cords from the cameras. Flock cameras remain on city property and the chief has no definitive timeline for their removal. (Source)

Flock CEO admits company has never fired a police department for misuse

TechCrunch via Yahoo News (October 17, 2026): Flock CEO Garrett Langley stated during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 that the company would cut ties with customers who knowingly broke the law, but acknowledged that Flock has never actually terminated a law enforcement customer for abusing its products. He suggested the decision becomes complicated when misconduct involves only a handful of officers within a larger department. Flock operates more than 100,000 cameras across the United States, and the network has documented cases of officers using the system to stalk former partners and conduct unauthorized searches. (Source)

At least 50 officers charged or accused of Flock-related stalking

The Fresno Bee via Washington Post (October 22, 2026): A Washington Post report this year documented that at least 50 officers have been charged with or accused of misuse related to stalking a partner, former partner, or a woman they were interested in. The Fresno case adds to a pattern that includes a San Jose police officer fired in September for using Flock to obtain data he gave to a relative suspected of domestic abuse, and a Massachusetts mayor who fired two officers who used the cameras to track a romantic partner with whom the officer had an on-and-off relationship. (Source)

San Jose residents demand contract cancellation and police chief resignation

San Jose Spotlight (October 5, 2026): A coalition of groups including SIREN, Working Partnerships USA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Amigos de Guadalupe are demanding that San Jose cancel its contract with Flock Safety and conduct an audit of its license plate reader system. Residents are also calling for the police chief to step down after a San Jose police officer was fired in April for using license plate tracking technology to help his cousin stalk a woman. The officer illicitly accessed license plate reader data on his phone, and the department was first informed of the incident in February 2025 after the woman reported that the man knew her whereabouts. (Source)

Midland, Texas unanimously terminates Flock contract

Texas Scorecard (October 15, 2026): The Midland City Council voted 7-0 to terminate its contract with Flock Safety and remove its 73 cameras, reversing a two-year $451,000 contract extension approved in February. Council members cited privacy concerns, operational costs, and misuse. The resolution is expected to save the city $225,000, the cost of the full second year. Flock will dismantle the city's network of 71 fixed cameras and two portable units at no additional cost, though no timeline for physical removal has been announced. A former Lufkin police officer was sentenced to five years in prison on October 1 for misusing Flock cameras to stalk an ex-girlfriend, conducting more than 25,000 license plate searches for non-law enforcement purposes. (Source)

San Diego moves to end Flock contract after councilman flips

The San Diego City Council's Budget and Government Efficiency Committee voted unanimously to end the city's contract with Flock Safety for automated license plate reader technology. Councilman Stephen Whitburn, who had voted multiple times to keep the Flock contract, changed course, saying the cameras were causing too much fear in local communities. His reversal could push the council to a 5-4 majority in favor of terminating the contract, though Mayor Todd Gloria's veto can only be overridden by a 6-3 supermajority. Critics called Flock a proven bad actor unwilling or unable to stop its technology from being abused. (NBC San Diego, October 2026) (Source)

Federal agencies caught using local Flock networks without department knowledge

Shawn Ryan Show / InvestigateTV (October 21, 2026): Investigations revealed that ICE, the Secret Service, and the Navy had been running searches through local Flock networks, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the local police departments that owned the cameras. In Evanston, Illinois, the city ordered its Flock cameras removed after discovering the system let US Customs and Border Protection access local plate data, a direct violation of Illinois state privacy law. Flock announced new accountability and auditing tools on August 13, 2026, in direct response to the criticism. (Source)

Flock Safety has grown into the largest license-plate surveillance network in the country, with more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states, and the abuse stories are no longer isolated incidents. They are a structural feature of a system built without warrants, without judicial oversight, and without meaningful consequences for the departments that misuse it. When a Fresno officer faces investigation for stalking-style misuse and a Massachusetts mayor fires two officers for tracking a romantic partner, the throughline is the same: the cameras were sold as a tool to catch car thieves, but they function as a warrantless dragnet that officers can use to track anyone, including ex-partners, and Flock has never fired a single police department for it.

The contract cancellations are the most concrete pushback so far. Plymouth, Midland, Madison County, San Diego, and San Jose have all moved to end or restrict their Flock relationships, and in Plymouth's case the company simply refused to acknowledge the cancellation, forcing the police chief to physically unplug the cameras himself. That is a remarkable image: a private surveillance company treating a democratic vote by a city council as a suggestion. The company says it would terminate departments that break the law but has never done so, and the ICE, Secret Service, and Navy have all been caught running searches through local Flock networks without those departments' knowledge. The throughline from stalking officers to federal agencies is that once this data exists, every entity with access uses it for purposes the public never approved.

What to watch next: the audit features Flock announced in August 2026 are supposed to track who searches the system and why, but those audits only matter if departments act on them and Flock terminates violators. The growing contract-cancellation trend is the real leverage point, and the question is whether more cities follow Plymouth and Midland or whether Flock's growth continues to outpace the exodus.