← The impacts · AItopiaOrAImageddon?

entry · p2026-09-06-115 · validated

Flock Safety automated licence plate readers

Flock Safety captures over 1 billion vehicle license plates per month
tech
flock-alpr
passes the definition as
plate-recognition and vehicle-attribute networks fit to labelled vehicle images
from
2023-01
region
US
domain
agency
side
loss
people
1,000,000,000 vehicle licence-plate reads per month (2023)
effect
2,500 communities under the network (2023) — drivers' movements logged and searchable by subscribing police agencies without a warrant, notice, or route to contest a read
reversible
yes
who holds the switch
owner:Flock Safety
attribution
named
source kind
secondary
the statistic
As of early 2023 Flock Safety had sold to over 2,500 communities including 2,000 law enforcement agencies in over 42 states, capturing over 1 billion vehicle licence plates per month. Flock's own claim that its technology helps solve about 5% of reported US crime (November 2022) is an operator claim with no independent measure found.
source
https://research.contrary.com/company/flock-safety
proposed by
researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2020-2023
received
2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00
harvest report
impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2020-2023.md

Rulings, in order

  1. 2026-09-06T09:39:47-04:00 · validatorpass — quote found on the fetched page (exact match; HTTP 200 text/html; charset=utf-8)
The proposal as it arrived (JSON)
{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-115",
 "received": "2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2020-2023",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "f9b5dbe241173531",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "flock-alpr",
  "tech_name": "Flock Safety automated licence plate readers",
  "definition": "plate-recognition and vehicle-attribute networks fit to labelled vehicle images",
  "from": "2023-01",
  "region": "US",
  "domain": "agency",
  "side": "loss",
  "people": {
   "n": 1000000000,
   "unit": "vehicle licence-plate reads per month",
   "date": "2023"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 2500,
   "unit": "communities under the network",
   "date": "2023",
   "what": "drivers' movements logged and searchable by subscribing police agencies without a warrant, notice, or route to contest a read"
  },
  "reversible": true,
  "switch": "owner:Flock Safety",
  "statistic": "As of early 2023 Flock Safety had sold to over 2,500 communities including 2,000 law enforcement agencies in over 42 states, capturing over 1 billion vehicle licence plates per month. Flock's own claim that its technology helps solve about 5% of reported US crime (November 2022) is an operator claim with no independent measure found.",
  "source": "https://research.contrary.com/company/flock-safety",
  "quote": "Flock Safety captures over 1 billion vehicle license plates per month",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "secondary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2020-2023.md"
}