{"id":383293,"date":"2026-08-28T06:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383293\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T06:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:08:30","slug":"flock-cameras-in-south-florida-a-controversial-police-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383293\/","title":{"rendered":"Flock cameras in South Florida a controversial police tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flock cameras are an increasingly prevalent<\/a> tool for law enforcement in South Florida. The small license plate readers come with access to a massive national database and powerful software. Controversy comes with them, too.<\/p>\n

License plate recognition cameras owned by the private technology company Flock Safety have increased in popularity in the past few years. The 8-year-old company describes the cameras<\/a> as capable of being \u201cplaced almost anywhere to capture detailed data about license plates and vehicles used to commit crimes,\u201d used by thousands of police agencies across the country.<\/p>\n

When a car drives by a Flock license plate reader, the motion-activated cameras capture a clear burst of photos of any car passing by, a company spokesperson and local law enforcement officials told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Detailed information is then retained in the system, beyond just a license plate number \u2014 including make, body type, color and characteristics such as window stickers or items in the bed of a truck. The software has a unique AI search feature, called \u201cVehicle Fingerprint,\u201d that allows officers to search keywords and descriptions to find vehicles. Police departments can opt to share their data with other agencies locally, statewide or nationwide.<\/p>\n

There are hundreds of these cameras across Florida, and multiple South Florida law enforcement agencies are currently using them, including the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office, Boynton Beach Police, Fort Lauderdale Police, Margate Police, Pembroke Pines Police, Coconut Creek Police and Davie Police. It is unclear exactly how many and which South Florida agencies currently use them; several police departments did not respond to requests for information before publication.<\/p>\n

DeSantis calls Flock license plate cameras \u2018out of control,\u2019 urges overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a>, say there\u2019s too much potential for the system to be abused and that it invades privacy rights of citizens who aren\u2019t suspected of any crimes, claims that the company refutes.<\/p>\n

There have been mounting concerns since President Donald Trump took office about the data being used for federal immigration enforcement. The company\u2019s database of license plate information has been searched hundreds of times for immigration-related enforcement this year across multiple states, including in Florida, according to news reports.<\/p>\n

A Colorado software engineer has spent more than a year creating and maintaining a website<\/a> that shows people where different types of automated license plate readers are located across the country, including some of Flock\u2019s, with the message displayed on his homepage: \u201cYou\u2019re being tracked.\u201d Police agencies generally keep camera locations secret.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn automated license plate reader that appears to be a Flock Safety camera is shown on Northeast Fourth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

South Florida law enforcement officials say the cameras are among their most valuable tools for fighting crime and that they are used solely to investigate crimes, not to surveil people randomly around the clock.<\/p>\n

The license plate readers were critical in helping solve a shooting investigation last summer that spanned multiple cities in Palm Beach County with the arrest of a man who kept a ledger of all of the addresses he targeted and had 10 more homes on his list<\/a>, Boynton Beach Police Assistant Chief John Bonafair said.<\/p>\n

As police departments struggle to recruit and retain officers, Flock\u2019s license plate cameras are allowing agencies to do more police work with less, company spokesperson Holly Beilin told the Sun Sentinel. Increasingly, major cities are opting into the technology, she said.<\/p>\n

Flock has responded to criticism on its website with a page detailing privacy and ethics<\/a>, touting a \u201cTransparency Portal\u201d that allows police agencies to share data publicly about how they are using the cameras if they opt to do so, system audits and case law that deems license plate reader data constitutional.<\/p>\n

Will Freeman, the creator of the plate-readers-mapping website and a staunch critic of Flock, was driving on a road trip from Seattle to Alabama when he noticed the cameras over and over, attached to poles alongside roads from smaller towns to major cities: Small black solar panels with a black camera attached. There was hardly any public discussion he could find about the cameras once he learned what they were, he told the Sun Sentinel, despite them being seemingly everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to change that because I feel like if people knew what they were, they\u2019d be creeped out by them,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThese things were introduced in most communities without any input.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the controversy surrounding them, the number of cameras in some parts of South Florida is likely to expand in the near future,\u00a0two local law enforcement agencies told the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

How it works<\/p>\n

The software on the cameras compares a license plate number against different national crime databases, including an AMBER alert database and the National Crime Information Center, NCIC, database maintained by the Department of Justice. If there\u2019s a match, law enforcement will receive an alert in real time with information, including which camera the car passed, according to Beilin.<\/p>\n

The license plate cameras do not use facial recognition, and the system does not directly identify personal information like who a vehicle belongs to or the person\u2019s address, Beilin said. Police officers must find vehicle registration information separately, outside of Flock\u2019s system. While concerns about privacy are \u201cvery real questions,\u201d she emphasized that the cameras are making a notable difference in fighting crime.<\/p>\n

Officers can also use the system for investigations. Beilin used the example of searching for a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run crash; if an officer has partial information about a vehicle, he or she could search for specific types of cars or characteristics. If a victim in a hit-and-run saw that the car involved was a white pickup truck with a license plate that began with the letter B or with a rack attached to the roof, as another example, Beilin said an officer could search for that \u201cgranular\u201d information.<\/p>\n

Bonafair said that AI feature of Flock\u2019s software was at work in a recent illegal dumping case, where Boynton Beach Police searched the data to find items in the back of a pickup truck.<\/p>\n

The police department had used other types of automated license plate readers for about six years while Flock\u2019s cameras were installed within the past two, Bonafair said. The city has a total of 10 cameras, two going in opposite directions in each location, placed in areas based on \u201cserious crime\u201d data, and all of the department\u2019s road patrol officers have access to the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where it usually doesn\u2019t solve the case, but it usually helps us get to a point where we can interview people or develop leads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To Bonafair, one of the most beneficial parts is the ability to share information with other police departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf another agency is looking for a car, we can see if it went into other jurisdictions, they can see if it went into ours. They can ask for help \u2026 It allows us to network,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Each police department customer of Flock owns its respective data captured on the cameras, Beilin said, meaning Flock cannot sell it and the individual agency decides who they share it with and for what purpose.<\/p>\n

\u2018Just images\u2019 or \u2018mass surveillance\u2019?<\/p>\n

Freeman is one of several to manage websites critical of Flock and its cameras. Another site<\/a> allows people to search their license plate numbers to see if they may have been searched by a Flock customer, using audit logs obtained by public records requests. Yet another<\/a> shares data sourced from police departments that have made their Transparency Portals public.<\/p>\n

Freeman said despite police department policies, officers could still be using the system for \u201csearching on a whim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people with access to them aren\u2019t perfect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"VariousVarious types of automated license plate recognition cameras are shown on a map, with locations based on crowd-sourced information. The clusters show the number of cameras reported in an area, some of which were identified by users as Flock cameras. (Will Freeman\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

There have been two recent reports of mistaken identity related to Flock\u2019s license plate cameras, a woman wrongfully accused of theft in Colorado<\/a> and a man in Washington<\/a>. And while police departments have their own policies and the company has an audit process in place to try to prevent misuse, there are several recent cases where law enforcement officers have been accused of abusing their access to Flock\u2019s cameras, according to news reports. Most recently, a Georgia police chief was arrested last month after allegedly using Flock\u2019s license plate system to harass and stalk multiple people, WSB-TV reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flock has system audits in place that can uncover misuse when an agency does an internal investigation, Beilin said, which are \u201cindefinitely saved\u201d and are \u201cunchangeable,\u201d and all officers have to enter a reason for their search.<\/p>\n

The company is implementing a feature this month where officers will have to select a reason for their search from a drop-down menu of crimes categorized by the National Incident-Based Reporting System, NIBRS, rather than entering their own text.<\/p>\n

Boynton Beach Police\u2019s policy on license plate readers says all information gathered from the systems will be for official law enforcement use only. It prohibits officers from pulling a driver over without confirming the alert received from the system and that an audit will be done semi-annually, in part, to identify if anyone is \u201cabusing\u201d the system.<\/p>\n

The company has come under scrutiny in recent months after news reports in multiple states detailed how Flock\u2019s database has been used for federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolicymakers need to recognize that the boundaries between local surveillance and the Trump Administration (as well as malevolent administrations in other states) are porous and hard to maintain \u2014 that if you collect local data on your residents\u2019 comings and goings, it will be hard to keep that from being used in unintended ways,\u201d ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley wrote in an August commentary<\/a> about increasing criticism of Flock.<\/p>\n

Florida Highway Patrol troopers performed more than 250 immigration-related searches in Flock\u2019s license plate reader system in a two-month span earlier this year, an analysis by Suncoast Searchlight found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More than 300 police departments<\/a> in Florida have formal agreements with ICE to carry out some aspects of federal immigration enforcement, including FHP.<\/p>\n

Outside of Florida, there have been instances of Flock\u2019s database being used for immigration-related searches in Illinois, Kentucky<\/a> and Virginia,<\/a> according to news reports.<\/p>\n

Florida troopers tapped surveillance network for immigration searches<\/a><\/p>\n

In Illinois, the secretary of state recently conducted an audit of Flock\u2019s data sharing and discovered that the company allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection access to Illinois license plate data, which was a violation of a state law that restricts law enforcement collaborating with ICE without a court warrant,\u00a0according to an August statement<\/a>. Flock discontinued its \u201cpilot program\u201d with Border Patrol and other federal agencies nationwide as a result of the audit, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Kentucky and Virginia are among the 34 states across the country where local law enforcement agencies have entered agreements with ICE. Those\u00a0two states do not appear to have any laws similar to the one in Illinois.<\/p>\n

As of December, Flock does not have contracts with any agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE or Border Protection, however, \u201cin states where it is legal and accepted for local agencies to collaborate with federal authorities, they do do so,\u201d Beilin said.<\/p>\n

In response to recent news reporting, in part, about immigration-related searches, Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a June statement<\/a>: \u201cIn some states and jurisdictions, local law enforcement work with federal authorities to enforce immigration offenses. In other states and jurisdictions, that is illegal per state law or considered socially unacceptable.\u00a0The point is: it is a local decision. Not my decision, and not Flock\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flock has implemented a feature that allows a police agency to block other agencies it shares data with from conducting searches for civil immigration enforcement or reproductive healthcare, Beilin said.<\/p>\n

Despite that filter being in place and having prevented \u201cthousands\u201d of other searches, one Illinois police department\u2019s cameras were still accessed in more than 200 searches by police departments in other states for immigration purposes, according to a statement<\/a> from the Village of Mount Prospect, Illinois.<\/p>\n

Boynton Beach Police are not using the license plate cameras for immigration-related enforcement in \u201cany way, shape or form,\u201d Assistant Chief Bonafair said.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn automated license plate reader that appears to be a Flock Safety camera is shown on Northeast Fourth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Bonafair said anyone with concerns about the cameras should know: \u201cThese are just images.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also have to understand that, yes, it is taking pictures of the vehicles that pass by, but we\u2019re not monitoring them live,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not sitting there watching it. These are things that we\u2019re only looking at the stuff if we\u2019re looking for a suspect or something \u2026 It\u2019s very hard to say that we are surveilling anything because we\u2019re really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some degree of secrecy surrounding use of them locally. Multiple police agencies said they could not disclose how many cameras they use or their locations, citing security and investigative reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pembroke Pines Police Department currently uses Flock camera systems for public safety and investigative purposes,\u201d said Pembroke Pines Police Assistant Chief Carlos Bermudez in a statement. \u201cUnfortunately, offering more specific information could compromise our agency\u2019s ability to effectively utilize this technology to its maximum potential. Therefore, this is the only information we will be sharing at this time related to our use of Flock cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several cities that contract with BSO use the cameras, spokesperson Carey Codd said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor operational and security reasons, BSO does not publicize where LPR\u2019s are placed in its jurisdictions,\u201d Codd said. \u201cGiving criminals and those with criminal intent the locations of the LPR\u2019s would undermine the effectiveness of the cameras and potentially compromise the safety of Broward County residents and visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman said the quiet nature surrounding use of the cameras, with often little to no public input from the community where they are installed, is one reason why he\u2019s against them. And another: \u201cI just don\u2019t want to be tracked all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear the arguments for the other side. I know crime is a thing, it always will be. But there are other ways \u2026 I don\u2019t see why you have to install a mass surveillance system across the entire United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flock cameras are an increasingly prevalent tool for law enforcement in South Florida. The small license plate readers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,29,249,251,250,114,266,373,115,557,109],"class_list":["post-383293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}