Eyes on the Road: Flock license plate cameras raise questions about immigration data sharing
The system is raising concerns among immigrant advocates who worry the data could be used to help federal immigration authorities locate people.
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Flock Safety has built a nationwide network of license plate-reading cameras, giving law enforcement agencies a way to quickly share information across jurisdictions. The company says the technology helps police solve crimes, locate missing people and identify vehicles connected to investigations.
But the system is raising concerns among immigrant advocates who worry the data could be used to help federal immigration authorities locate people.
“These are our communities, our homes, our neighborhood streets,” said Minerva Perez, an advocate with OLA of Eastern Long Island.
Perez said she is concerned that Flock’s network could become another tool for tracking immigrants.
“We want to make sure this is not just another way to track human beings that might be in the process of being documented, or fully documented ... or just as an excuse to pick anyone up any time,” Perez said.
Flock Safety says it does not work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and does not have a contract with the agency.
The company says communities control access to their data and that, by default, sharing with federal agencies is disabled. Flock also says ICE does not have direct access to its cameras, systems or data.
However, local law enforcement agencies are not necessarily prohibited from sharing Flock data with federal agencies.
Earlier this year, a member of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office said the department shares Flock data with one federal agency.
“The cameras are shared with various local municipality agencies throughout the country,” Suffolk Sheriff Investigator Sergeant Richard Tedesco said. “The only federal agency we're sharing with currently is the postal police.”
Flock also acknowledges that it offered pilot projects to federal agencies in 2025. According to information provided by the company, a pilot with Homeland Security Investigations ran from March 3 to May 1, 2025, while a U.S. Customs and Border Protection pilot ran from May 9 to Aug. 24, 2025.
Flock says it no longer conducts pilot projects with federal agencies.
The company also says its technology does not use facial recognition. Its cameras can, however, capture distinguishing characteristics of passing vehicles, including their color, bumper stickers and roof racks.
Police officials say that information is generally kept within an agency unless it becomes relevant to a criminal investigation.
Hempstead Village Police Chief Richard Holland said noncriminal information or information unrelated to a warrant or arrestable offense remains within the department. But if someone is wanted for a crime, he said, the information can be entered into the Flock system and made available to other jurisdictions.
