National debate over Flock Safety’s nationwide surveillance network continues as new reports emerge on how federal immigration agents have used license plate reader data.
The Associated Press reported last month that it had obtained documents showing that Border Patrol has in the past had access to data from at least three private sector surveillance vendors: Rekor, Vigilant Solutions and Flock Safety, whom Oak Park maintained a license plate reader contract with until the village board voted to shut off the town’s cameras on Aug. 5, citing concerns over their potential use in immigration investigations.
The AP’s investigation found that Border Patrol agents were using License Plate Reader networks in a “secretive program” aimed at identifying and detaining people whose travel patterns it deemed suspicious, with the agency looking at data from cameras far from the border in cities like Chicago.
Border Patrol told AP the cameras are used to thwart drug smuggling and human trafficking operations by using the networks to surveil where people traveling on America’s roads and using that data to predict who is involved in the smuggling. Border Patrol has generally kept mentions of the surveillance systems out of arrest reports and other public facing documents, the AP found.
Flock Safety operates a massive camera network in the United States, with contracts on the books with more than 5,000 American law enforcement agencies. The company says that its tech plays a role in 12% of all solved crimes in the US, and champions of the technology say that the cameras are a revolutionary public safety tool.
But the constitutionality of the system is being challenged in federal court, as critics say the surveillance tech violates the fourth amendment.
Through Flock alone, Border Patrol for a time had access to at least 1,600 license plate readers across 22 states, and some counties have reported looking up license plates on behalf of Border Patrol even in states like California and Illinois that ban sharing data with federal immigration authorities, according to an AP analysis of police disclosures. A Flock spokesperson told AP the company “for now” had paused its pilot programs with Border Patrol and a separate DHS agency, Homeland Security Investigations, and declined to discuss the type or volume of data shared with either federal agency, other than to say agencies could search for vehicles wanted in conjunction with a crime. No agencies currently list Border Patrol as receiving Flock data, according to AP.
In June, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that his office would be auditing the Illinois operations of Flock Safety. The investigation found that the company had broken Illinois law by allowing data collected from license plate readers to be accessed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Illinois has laws on the books banning license plate reader data to be used for immigration status investigations and criminal investigations related to out-of-state abortion access.
“As a result of the sample audit that included a sampling of 12 local law enforcement agencies, the office discovered late last week that Flock did not have proper safeguards in place for data sharing, which was compounded by the fact that the company was running a pilot program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which Flock leadership was unaware of,” Giannoulias’ office said in a statement. “This was uncovered as part of the Secretary of State’s audit, and Flock has also since paused its pilot with CBP and other federal agencies, not only in Illinois but nationwide.”
On the heels of that announcement, Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley wrote a blog post addressing the Illinois audit’s findings.
“We clearly communicated poorly. We also didn’t create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users,” he wrote. “In order to work with federal law enforcement agencies, while remaining committed to the values of the communities across the country we currently serve, we are engaging in a coordinated product, engineering, and policy effort to ensure that each of our client agencies better understand how to control their sharing relationships.”
The state’s audit came weeks after Oak Park’s board of trustees voted on Aug. 5 to cancel the contract that the village had renewed with Flock Safety a year earlier. Trustees cited concerns over federal immigration enforcement agents’ potential access to Oak Park data, which would violate the village’s immigration sanctuary ordinance.
“This is what democracy looks like,” Trustee Brian Straw said. “So I do hope other communities will look at this conversation and will look at the national stories that are coming out and reconsider if they want to continue participating with Flock and continue sharing their data. This is a healthy part of democracy, to actually change what we’re doing in response to national events and trends.”
Oak Park had eight Flock Safety cameras in operation when the board voted to kill the contract. All but one of the cameras was situated within two blocks of the Oak Park-Chicago line.
The majority of Oak Park trustees voted to cancel the contract outright, but trustees Jim Taglia and Cory Wesley had introduced an alternative measure that would’ve shut off the cameras for 90 days as the Oak Park police worked on its own internal audit. Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman said she wished the board would’ve taken that option to work through a more measured decision-making process that better included the expertise of the police department.
“While I know that all of you are very genuine about your service to our community, but this feels icky,” she said. “Nobody is going to watch this meeting and learn anything. We had the power as the village of Oak Park to have a more substantive conversation where we’re with our professional staff to uncover the challenges and to get down to facts and likely have come to the same place.”
Early work on the Illinois audit revealed that in January, a Flock account associated with the south suburban Palos Heights Police Department had searched Oak Park Flock data 28 times with a stated purpose of investigating “immigration violation.”
Cities in several states have moved to cut ties with Flock in the months since Oak Park ended its own deal with the tech provider.
On Tuesday, Aug. 26, north suburban Evanston announced that it would shut off its 19 Flock license plate readers effective Sept. 26. Some of the other municipalities to follow Oak Park’s lead and cancel Flock contracts include Cambridge, MA, Hillsborough, NC, Redmond, WA, Verona, WI, Sedona, AZ and Hays County, Texas, which includes suburban Austin.
