Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Flock Enables Law Enforcement Personnel to Misuse Vehicle Location Info for Surveillance, Stalking

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Flock has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that its nationwide vehicle surveillance system allows law enforcement personnel to access information from automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras to surveil and stalk individuals for personal purposes.

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The 35-page lawsuit argues that Flock Group Inc. is aware that its integrated Flock camera system, which includes a network of over 120,000 ALPR cameras and searchable databases that can be used to show a vehicle’s location over time, is subject to “rampant” misuse for non-law enforcement purposes but continues to enable users to improperly access and use information about vehicles’ movements.

The filing explains that Flock ALPR cameras are placed in fixed locations and automatically capture license plate information and images of passing vehicles, along with the date, time and location where each vehicle was detected. This information is then uploaded to Flock’s searchable cloud-based databases, which include data from ALPR cameras in 49 states, the suit relays.

However, the lawsuit contends that the Flock system fails to safeguard vehicle location information from unauthorized or improper access, alleging that Flock’s nationwide network of cameras has “repeatedly” been misused by current and former law enforcement personnel to monitor individuals’ movements, routines and associations for personal purposes.

“Reported incidents have involved law enforcement personnel using Flock to conduct personal surveillance, repeated improper searches continuing before detection, former agency personnel retaining access to agency accounts, Flock employees accessing customer-integrated camera feeds in sensitive locations and government customers discovering that the access actually provided through Flock exceeded the access they intended or understood themselves to have authorized,” the class action complaint says. 

The filing relays that in August 2026, a Washington Post investigation of police and court records found that at least 50 law enforcement officers had been charged with or accused of misusing ALPR systems, with Flock’s system implicated in 46 of those cases. Troublingly, in 26 cases, the technology was allegedly used to surveil wives, girlfriends, former partners, their new partners, or women the officers “wanted to meet,” the case states.

Moreover, the lawsuit says June 2026 reporting found that one former deputy in Richmond County, Georgia searched one woman’s license plate 1,639 times over several months for “personal monitoring.” The same investigation identified three other employees who each conducted over 100 unauthorized searches, the suit shares.

The lawsuit also takes issue with Flock’s alleged failure to restrict former law enforcement personnel’s access to its databases. For example, in July 2026, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that a former employee of the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office used the office’s Flock account to make over 60 unauthorized searches between June 15 and July 5, 2026, the case states.

The suit says that Flock, which has the ability to restrict or terminate a user’s access to its systems, nonetheless does not prevent such misuse. Indeed, Flock employees themselves accessed privately owned cameras integrated with the Flock system in “sensitive” locations such as a children’s gymnastics room and a Jewish community center during a Flock demonstration and testing meeting, the case claims.

Further, the lawsuit says Flock settings can provide interagency access beyond what its government customers intended to provide. For instance, the Illinois Secretary of State announced in August 2025 that an audit found that Flock had allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to access Illinois license plate camera data and “surveil drivers” in violation of state law.

The lawsuit argues that Flock cameras also generate an “enormous” volume of inaccurate data, which can result in significant consequences. For instance, the suit says, incidents have been documented in which innocent motorists have been stopped and confronted by law enforcement due to misread license plates.

Despite Flock’s awareness that its vehicle surveillance system can harm innocent people through deliberate abuse by law enforcement personnel or inaccurate information, the company “repeatedly minimized” the significance of such failures by claiming abuse is “rare or isolated,” per the complaint.

The filing says that Flock cameras capture individuals while on their way to work, school or sensitive appointments for medical and mental health treatment.

“Notwithstanding their doing nothing to warrant law enforcement surveillance, they nevertheless are aggressively and pervasively surveilled,” the lawsuit states.

The Flock class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States whose license plate data was collected by Flock using an automated license plate recognition system operated by Flock since January 1, 2024.

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