License plate readers were sold to police departments as a tool for solving crimes by finding missing people, recovering stolen cars and locating vehicles connected to active investigations. That’s the pitch Flock Safety has used to place its cameras in thousands of communities across the country. The network now logs billions of vehicle sightings every month, and more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies use the platform.

At C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, we’ve spent more than a decade representing victims whose lives have been upended when powerful technology gets weaponized against them. We’ve seen dating apps, social media platforms, AI tools and other products become weapons for stalkers and abusers. 

That’s why we’re not surprised that now, Flock’s surveillance network is raising another terrifying version of the same problem.

Stalking has long since involved the weaponization of tech. But Flock gives an abuser with police access something most stalkers could only dream of: near-real-time records of where someone’s car has been, accessed through an official law enforcement system that the victim may have no idea is being used against them. 

That is already happening, repeatedly, across the country.

A recent Washington Post investigation identified at least 50 law enforcement officers who have been charged with or accused of misusing Flock and other license plate reader systems. In more than half of those cases, according to the Post’s reporting, officers used the technology to monitor wives, girlfriends, exes, their ex-partners’ new relationships or women they wanted to pursue. 

Think about what that means for a victim. Someone with access to these systems may be able to find out where she goes, when she leaves home, where she spends the night and who she visits — all without her ever knowing she is being watched.

In response to mounting reports of misuse, Flock Safety has announced new safeguards. Officers will now be required to tie searches to criminal case numbers, and Flock says it will automatically flag abnormal search activity. The company is also reducing data retention from 30 days to seven.

Good. These safeguards should exist. But their arrival raises an obvious question: Why the hell weren’t they there from the beginning?!

A company sophisticated enough to build a nationwide surveillance network should have been sophisticated enough to see this coming. Misuse isn’t some bizarre, unforeseeable event. When you build a product that can locate people and put it in the hands of thousands of users, you have to anticipate that some of those users will abuse that power. 

As our Chief of Staff Norma Buster recently told Jasmine Mithani for a story on Flock for The 19th News, at our firm, we’ve seen this story before. Tech companies build extraordinarily powerful products. They make them available at an enormous scale. Somebody weaponizes the product to stalk, harass, exploit or hurt another person. And only after people get hurt do basic safety features suddenly become possible.

Flock Surveillance Impacts More Than Stalking Victims 

Advocates have been warning the public about how surveillance tools like Flock impact the most vulnerable populations, especially those often subjected to state violence. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • People seeking or helping to facilitate abortions in states with restrictive abortion bans. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortions in the United States have actually increased, not decreased – and this is thanks in part to the availability of medication abortion (AKA abortion pills). As 404 Media reported in 2025, a cop in Texas used Flock to search for a woman who got an abortion, performing a search of over 83,000 Flocks cameras, including in states where abortion is legal. 
  • People (including children) who are undocumented or whose legal status is in question. Flock has said it has no contract with ICE, and federal agencies were removed from its national search network in August 2025. However, a February 2026 investigation by The 74 revealed police departments across the country were tapping into Flock cameras, including from schools, for immigration-related investigations. 
  • Sex workers and victims of sex trafficking. As long as sex work remains criminalized, those in the industry are vulnerable to state surveillance.  Advocates raised alarm bells earlier this year when the LAPD increased their number of cameras on the streets, supposedly to combat trafficking, but ultimately increasing surveillance of sex workers. Additionally, those in the sex trade, especially transgender sex workers, are at increased risk of violence by police. One study reported that 89.2% of transgender and gender- diverse sex workers who had interacted with police while doing their work had experienced harassment and/or violence in their interactions. 

These examples are different, but the underlying problem is the same. Flock built a system with enormous power to track people’s movements, then put that power into widespread use before adequate safeguards were in place.

For victims of stalking, people seeking reproductive care, immigrants, sex workers and others already vulnerable to surveillance and abuse, “we fixed it after something went wrong” is not good enough. Companies building technologies this powerful have a responsibility to anticipate how they can be misused and design against that misuse from the beginning. Because once a surveillance tool is weaponized, the damage is already done.

If you believe Flock or another surveillance technology has been used to stalk, harass or otherwise harm you, contact C.A. Goldberg to learn more about your legal options here or call (646) 666-8908.