LAPD ends contract with Flock Safety over privacy concerns
Original: LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire
Why This Matters
LAPD's exit signals growing institutional resistance to private surveillance networks over data privacy and civil rights concerns.
The Los Angeles Police Department has allowed its three-year contract with surveillance firm Flock Safety to expire on July 13, 2026, citing 'serious concerns' over civil liberties, privacy, and data collection practices tied to the company's license plate camera network.
The LAPD, the third-largest police department in the U.S., has ended its partnership with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based surveillance company operating a network of at least 80,000 license plate-reading cameras across the country. LAPD Chief Information Officer Dean Gialamas stated: 'This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras.' Gialamas added that the department may revisit the relationship once contractual language around data privacy, security, and sharing is resolved. Flock's cameras are operated by the company itself, not by the LAPD, raising questions about continued recording activity after the contract's expiration. Flock said the expiration came as a 'surprise' and expressed confidence it could 'clear up current misconceptions,' without specifying what those were. The LAPD's exit follows similar moves by Mountain View, California, and South Portland, Maine, which also terminated Flock contracts over privacy concerns and worries that federal immigration officials used the cameras in violation of local sanctuary city policies. Researchers have also documented a rise in wrongful traffic stops and detentions linked to false positives from Flock's system.