LA and Other Cities Are Distancing Themselves From Flock Safety

The city of Los Angeles is letting a three-year contract with Flock Security expire -- at least for now -- amid concerns about privacy, data storage and the effectiveness of Flock's license plate reader technology, as well as moves by other cities to distance themselves from the Atlanta-based surveillance company.

Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department announced it would no longer use the 138 mounted surveillance cameras in the city operated by Flock, which were being used to track vehicles by automatically reading their license plates. A few months ago, the Los Angeles Times reported on discontent in LA over Flock potentially sharing information with the US government, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, although at the time the LAPD praised Flock's cameras as "tremendous investigative tools."

In May, a city council member moved to suspend new contracts or agreements with Flock.

Neither the LAPD, the...

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