Multiple Los Angeles residents expressed concerns about the monitoring of citizens under a surveillance company called Flock Safety at a Los Angeles Police Department Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The section for public comment ran long amid fueled citizen complaints about the LAPD\u2019s use of the AI surveillance system. <\/p>\n
The majority of citizens who appeared for public comment represented the Downtown Women\u2019s Action Coalition<\/a>, a subset of the Los Angeles Community Action Network. They came to \u201cdemand that Los Angeles cancel all partnerships with Flock Safety immediately,\u201d according to speakers from the Coalition who made public comments.<\/p>\n Flock Safety<\/a> is a police surveillance systems company that leads the nation<\/a> in automated license plate-reading systems. They read using automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The company then shares camera footage with law enforcement as evidence for crime investigations. <\/p>\n The system drew concerns about women\u2019s safety and immigration enforcement due to a lack of transparency over data sharing. <\/p>\n The majority of citizens who appeared for public comment represented the Downtown Women\u2019s Action Coalition<\/a>, a subset of the L.A. Community Action Network. <\/p>\n \u201cWomen [who] are fleeing domestic violence often rely on anonymity in mobility to survive,\u201d said a speaker with the coalition, who was identified on the Police Commission\u2019s transcript as Litizia. \u201cNow imagine expanding a system that tracks movement patterns across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n The coalition specializes in promoting health, safety and socioeconomic justice for women living in downtown L.A., specifically in Skid Row. They voiced concerns that many vulnerable women are already at risk of being tracked with the data shared by Flock Safety. <\/p>\n \u201cThese tools make it easier to trace women who are trying to escape harm. They make it easier for abusers or the state to locate vulnerable women,\u201d Litizia said. <\/p>\n Another speaker, identified as Novelette on the transcript, also spoke on behalf of the coalition and the female population on Skid Row, a neighborhood that contains one of the largest stable unhoused populations in the United States. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is a community of women surviving policy failure. Failed housing policy, failed health care system, failed economic protection,\u201d Novelette said. \u201cStop experimenting on us. Stop treating poverty like a criminal condition to be monitored. We are not data points.\u201d <\/p>\n Others were concerned that the data collected from Flock Safety was being used to assist federal immigration enforcement, noting Skid Row\u2019s high Black and Latine population. One member of the coalition, identified in the transcript as Marisela, criticized Flock for working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cSkid Row is home to women surviving violence and displacement,\u201d Marisela said. \u201cYou are expanding a surveillance system that can be used to track vulnerable women in our community.\u201d <\/p>\n Over two dozen other privacy and advocacy groups are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to remove license plate readers in Southern California, according to The Associated Press<\/a>. <\/p>\n The United States Border Patrol used nationwide license plate surveillance systems to track vehicles with unusual travel patterns, an AP investigation<\/a> revealed. Border Patrol has sourced information from license plate readers run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, law enforcement and private companies. <\/p>\n Flock Chief Executive Garret Langley said the company had previously worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, but has since stopped collaborating, according to The Los Angeles Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n An audit by Ventura County found 364,000 cases of out-of-state agencies accessing Flock Safety license plate reader data without approval from February to March 2025, according to CBS News<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot say you support immigrant communities while investing in tools that help hunt them,\u201d Marisela said. <\/p>\n Flock Safety announced a partnership with Amazon\u2019s Ring in Oct. 2025 to assist crime investigation. The partnership<\/a>, called the \u201cSearch Party,\u201d would have allowed law enforcement to request Ring customer footage through Flock. <\/p>\n The new feature was promoted in a Super Bowl advertisement<\/a>, which immediately drew public scrutiny and concerns of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accessing user data. Last month, Ring announced<\/a> that the companies had jointly decided to cancel the partnership due to time and resource constraints. <\/p>\n