Below is a curated listing of articles and news items that have been published on the topic of ALPR's and surveillance.
“Invasion of Privacy” or Essential Safety? Flock License Plate Cameras Spark Massive New Jersey Debatehttps://t.co/nvpRcuPOgt
— the Ridgewood blog (@TRBNJNews) July 27, 2026
New Jersey News, Privacy & Technology, Local Law Enforcement, Bergen County News, Public Safety
Unlike traditional security cameras, Flock cameras collect information about every vehicle that passes through their field of view, regardless of whether a moving violation has been committed.
Residents across New Jersey are divided over the growing presence of license plate reading cameras, commonly known as Flock cameras.
Unlike traditional security cameras, Flock cameras collect information about every vehicle that passes through their field of view, regardless of whether a moving violation has been committed.
They record a vehicle's license plate number, make, model and color. The cameras also document the location, date and time the vehicle was recorded.
Automatic license plate reader (ALPR) companies like Flock Safety are quietly trying to build a nationwide mass surveillance system. If there are Flock cameras in your city, they are tracking, logging, and sharing your movements without a warrant. But we're not powerless. More and more communities are rejecting these creepy cameras — and yours can be one of them!
A source tells News 12 that at some point last week, four of the city's Flock Safety license plate recognition cameras were vandalized and knocked down.
"Good, I'm glad," said Milford resident Arthur Pocevic after hearing the news. "It wasn't me, but I have no problem with that."
Unlike Milford's speed cameras that were installed a couple months ago these cameras have been up for about a year.
Advocates say it’s too easy to abuse automated license plate reader technology.
Flock cameras—solar-powered, automated license plate readers, weighing less than 3 pounds and designed to be unobtrusive—can be found on 80,000 street corners throughout the country. The company behind the cameras built an $8.3 billion business empowering officers to track people’s movements. Nationwide, Flock cameras log billions of license plates each month. And now dozens of reports are emerging of police using the cameras not to solve crimes, but to stalk their partners and exes.
By now, millions of people have seen our story about how a series of errors between Flock Safety and law enforcement led police to track me for days via automated license plate cameras and ambush me in a coordinated takedown. Millions more have seen the body cam footage of the incident we obtained and published. It’s become part of an even larger and more heated conversation about privacy in America, and one week later, I’ve learned a lot more about how and why it happened—including from Flock itself.
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A second Milwaukee police officer has been charged with misusing Flock cameras to stalk two victims.
The detective was assigned to investigate another officer misusing the cameras -- but he was doing the same thing. Tehrangi Chapman, 51, is charged with misconduct in public office and misuse of a GPS device. He's a detective for Milwaukee police with 22 years of service. Chapman has been suspended since March 13.
Published originally at Cato.org. Published under Creative Commons License
The Supreme Court fought for privacy in Chatrie v. United States, putting another dent in unchecked surveillance that has become too common. Yet, in a concurring opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch pointed out an important issue: the decision seems to be drawing lines in the sand when it comes to the Fourth Amendment. While I’m happy to see the Fourth Amendment affirmed, Gorsuch is right.
If you have not been following the case, the issue centers around how the police investigated a bank robbery. In short, the police used a geofence warrant to get Google to hand over the location history of anyone who had been in the area during the robbery. After sifting through the data, the police eventually landed on Okello Chatrie.
Building on a similar case (Carpenter v. United States), the Court reminded everyone that the Fourth Amendment serves as a check on the government’s power:
The Fourth Amendment protects individuals’ reasonable expectations of privacy, and governmental “intrusion into that private sphere generally qualifies as a search.” The Amendment’s “basic purpose” is “to safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasions by governmental officials,” and it was designed “to place obstacles in the way of a too permeating police surveillance.”
8 Ways To Take Down Flock Without A Sawzall:
— Jason Bassler (@JasonBassler1) July 1, 2026
1. Demand An Audit
Most cities never independently audit whether Flock cameras in town actually reduce crime. Ask your city council to show evidence that these cameras reduced violent crime. Make them prove it. They usually can't.…
Every time you pull out of your driveway, you probably still harbor the illusion that you are a free individual going about your business. The reality is far more grim: your vehicle is bleeding data into a massive, unregulated dragnet the moment you pass the neighborhood entrance. Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) and Flock cameras have infested our communities, quietly transforming the American landscape into an open-air panopticon.
Automated license plate surveillance cameras, key to recent ICE arrests, are coming under increasing scrutiny by lawmakers and privacy advocates who say widespread digital networks are creating hoards of data to track motorists.
TRENTON, NJ — Widespread networks of automated license plate surveillance cameras that create hoards of data used to track motorists are under increasing scrutiny by lawmakers and privacy advocates in the wake of their recent use in ICE arrests.
Lawmakers in New Jersey and 34 other states have proposed nearly 100 pieces of legislation regarding license-plate readers – many seeking to prohibit states from sharing or selling years’ worth of data that could be used to extensively track drivers, according to BillTrack50, a legislative tracking service.
Residents of an Atlanta suburb have been rocked by the revelation that sales employees at Flock have been accessing sensitive cameras in the town to demonstrate the company’s surveillance technology to police departments around the country. The cameras accessed have included surveillance tech in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool.