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Flock Safety

The wrapped Toyota Yaris from the noRecognition test
privacyculture

An AI-generated car wrap kept Flock cameras from classifying a Yaris

Cybersecurity researcher Bill Swearingen's noRecognition project generates patterns designed to confuse the computer vision behind surveillance systems. Working with Donut Media, he covered a 2009 Toyota Yaris in the pattern and drove it past a Flock camera at DEF CON in Las Vegas: the camera records, but the software struggles to classify what it sees. Swearingen says the patterns defeated 11 open-source surveillance algorithms and reportedly also confuse Axon body cams and Clearview AI.

Illustration for the Sanders and Flock surveillance story
policyprivacy

Bernie Sanders says he will introduce a bill to ban Flock cameras

On August 27, 2026, Senator Bernie Sanders announced he will introduce legislation to ban Flock Safety's AI-powered surveillance cameras, which he says number more than 120,000 across over 6,000 US communities. The bill has not been introduced yet. House Republicans separately filed a bill to bar the federal government from buying Flock cameras, and Senator Josh Hawley opened an investigation into the company's data practices.

Illustration for the Flock camera backlash story
privacyculture

Americans are cheering the people tearing down Flock cameras

The Verge reports that destroying Flock Safety license plate readers has grown into a national movement. The FlockStats tracker counts 162 cameras destroyed, and DeFlock logged more than 20 cities and counties dropping Flock contracts in July 2026 alone, the most in a single month since tracking began in 2021. Under a report about a West Virginia man's arrest for cutting down cameras, commenters volunteered alibis. The backlash is bipartisan and openly celebrated.

Illustration for the Flock officer plate searches story
privacypolicy

A Florida officer searched his wife's plate in Flock 717 times

Christopher Goodson, 31, of the Haines City Police Department in Florida was arrested this week on charges of official misconduct and computer offenses. Investigators say that between September 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026 he entered his estranged wife's license plate into the Flock license plate reader database 717 times, including 280 times in September 2025 alone, using a department-issued laptop and phone on and off duty; she was not part of any investigation. He is charged, not convicted. Separately, HaveIBeenFlocked.com launched with a searchable archive of publicly obtained Flock audit logs covering nearly 242 million searches of more than 4.6 million plates between December 2021 and July 2026. Flock operates more than 120,000 cameras and connected devices.