AI Flock Cameras Surveil U.S. Cities with Taxpayer Funding

Any law-abiding American wants to see crime reduced—but should that come at the cost of personal liberty?

As artificial intelligence sweeps the nation, outpacing legislative safeguards at a rapid pace, privacy and individual freedom are increasingly becoming the price of we pay to enforce the law. The two now operate in tension—more of the one often means less of the other.

Striking the right balance will ultimately fall to elected officials. But in the meantime Americans deserve to understand what's unfolding right in front of them. After all, the authoritarian surveillance state in Communist China stands as a stark example of what happens when the pendulum swings too far.

Flock Safety

The most pressing question when it comes to surveillance is what is truly happening behind the scenes—and how far bad actors could take it if they chose to.

"Flock Safety" doesn’t hide its intent in its name. The real question is: Are they watching over the flock, or watching the flock itself?

Founded in 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, Flock Safety has quickly become a major player in the AI surveillance industry. In less than a decade the company has installed cameras in over 5,000 communities across every state except Alaska.

The company processes billions of surveillance scans each month with over 3 million cameras.

Flock Safety’s systems capture images of every passing vehicle, record license plates, and log the time, date, and GPS location. They also collect detailed vehicle information, including make, model, color, and distinguishing features such as damage, accessories, or stickers.

All of this data is uploaded in real time to a centralized, searchable database. Using AI-powered computing, the system creates what the company calls a “vehicle fingerprint.” These systems are interconnected across jurisdictions, allowing data to be shared and accessed beyond a single locality.

But license plate reading is only the first iteration. In 2024, Flock Safety acquired Aerodrome, a drone technology company. They now offer drone surveillance to companies.

Supporters argue the system enables unparalleled apprehension of criminals, but they overlook a harsh reality: Anything that can be abused eventually will be.

Flock systems may help law enforcement monitor and locate bad actors, but their databases create files on everyone. While Americans sleep soundly in their beds, private companies are compiling massive databases on what they drive, where they go, and how they live.

Flock Safety maintains that it does not own or sell user data, stating that access is limited to its customers—primarily HOAs and law enforcement.

“One hundred percent of data, which is the photo of the public license plate, is owned by our customers,” Kerry McCormack, Flock Group Inc’s public relations manager for the East Coast, said. “So, you own that data. It is never sold. We don’t have that in our model. It is written into your contract. We do not sell data.”

While that may ease some privacy concerns, it does not address the core issue: Flock cameras enable government access to a nationwide database on much of the American public, regardless of jurisdiction.

Paying for Our Own Surveillance

Flock cameras raise not only the pressing question of whether the government would engage in mass surveillance of the American people, but also the cost of doing so.

Do Americans want to foot the bill for their own surveillance?

There are currently 9,440 Flock contracts across the country, with roughly 5,000 tied to law enforcement. The company is the leading provider in the subscription-based Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) industry, with a rapidly expanding nationwide network of over 3 million cameras.

In 2024, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, signed a $1.5 million contract with Flock for 175 cameras. That same year, the city of Denver signed a $1.8 million contract for a real-time crime center, along with an undisclosed number of license plate-reading cameras. The Miami Police Department also joined Flock in 2024, signing a $2.1 million contract for approximately 200 cameras.

In 2025, Harris County, Texas, signed a $2.9 million contract for countywide vehicle recognition, with the number of cameras undisclosed. That same year, the Atlanta Police Department in Georgia signed a $3.8 million contract for 250 cameras.

The contracts do not authorize the ownership of the cameras or system and are based on a yearly or multi-year contract.

A closer breakdown shows that pricing varies by system type. Falcon ALPR cameras typically cost between $2,000 and $2,500 per year and include hardware, software, cellular service, and maintenance. Falcon Flex cameras range from about $2,200 to $2,800 annually and offer more advanced vehicle “fingerprinting” capabilities. The Raven audio system costs roughly $6,000 to $10,000 and is designed to detect gunshots.

Localities are now spending millions of dollars per year in taxpayer funding to surveille the taxpayers themselves.

Growing Public Backlash

Flock surveillance has not quietly taken over the streets of America—many communities have pushed back against the mass collection of private data and the excessive use of surveillance.

In Mountain View, California, the police department turned off its Flock cameras after learning that federal law enforcement agencies had accessed the system without authorization.

“The existence of access by out-of-state agencies, without the City’s awareness, that circumvented the protections we purposefully built and believed were in place is frankly unacceptable to me and to the dedicated people of the MVPD,” said the police chief.

The city reported that the system had been accessed by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) offices in Kentucky and Tennessee, which investigate crimes related to guns, explosives, arson, and the illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco.

Following this unauthorized access, numerous locations began banning or blocking Flock cameras. Over the past six months, 53 cities across 20 states have deactivated or rejected Flock systems.

Alongside fears that the federal government is accessing cameras without authorization, there are concerns that the camera systems themselves are not secure. One YouTuber, Benn Jordan, recently discovered that Flock cameras are severely compromised. 

Jordan claims that the cameras stream directly to the internet, creating a serious security risk.

YouTuber Benn Jordan discovered a surveillance company named Flock Safety who currently has over 90K camera deployed throughout the US, is severely compromised.

He found many cameras are live streaming directly to the open internet. pic.twitter.com/Aud0QhvxmJ

— redpillbot (@redpillb0t) March 24, 2026

Maintaining Freedom and Privacy

For years, surveillance cameras have been an effective deterrent to crime—and it’s reasonable to assume that most Americans would agree.

The main concern arises when private surveillance systems are backed by advanced AI models capable of real-time tracking of every American. This not only raises significant privacy issues but also enables the creation of a cross-jurisdictional database containing information on individuals nationwide.

These AI systems are self-reinforcing, growing more powerful as they amass data. While they are strictly marketed today as crime-prevention tools, they could easily be repurposed as instruments of control tomorrow.

As AI and surveillance policy continue to lag behind technology, it is imperative that Americans understand exactly what is happening behind the scenes—especially when it comes to personal data. AI represents the next frontier for human civilization. While its development cannot—and arguably should not—be stopped, it is crucial that we implement laws that protect American values and freedoms first.

What is the point of gaining AI if we lose our liberty in the process? After all, Communist China has already shown the dangerous path we could be walking down.

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