LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire, citing ‘serious concerns’ over civil liberties and privacy
The Los Angeles Police Department has allowed its contract with Flock Safety, a major automated license plate reader company, to lapse after citing serious civil liberties and privacy concerns. LAPD had been one of Flock's largest government clients.
Why this matters: When one of the biggest police departments in the country walks away from a surveillance contract and says civil liberties out loud as the reason, that is worth paying attention to. Flock's license plate readers do not just clock speeders. They build a running record of where cars go, which means where people go. That data does not disappear. It gets stored, shared, and sometimes misused. LAPD dropping Flock does not end this technology. But it signals that even large departments feel pressure to justify what they are collecting and why.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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