April 24, 2026
Good news: the city of Bloomington, IL decided not to renew their contract with Flock after the public and city council members voiced concerns! The mayor cited issues with privacy, transparency, accountability, and public trust. Each cancellation reinforces the power of resident feedback to municipalities; this is working! For more information about how to talk to your local officials (including email and call scripts), check out our action page. Send it to a friend. There is clearly power in numbers at the local level!
And now, on to Virginia, where there are several recent happenings. For some background context, in October 2024, two residents in Norfolk, VA sued the city alleging that Flock’s ALPR cameras represented warrantless surveillance that infringed on residents’ fourth amendment rights. See another update on the case from September 2025. Unfortunately, in January 2026, a federal judge ruled that the cameras weren’t yet an invasion of privacy. Back to present time: the residents are appealing the judge’s decision. This week, several organizations filed amicus briefs in support of the appeal, including The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. The amicus briefs state (among many arguments) that Flock’s systems expose the “privacies of life,” allow police departments and federal agencies to monitor people’s activities in real-time without a warrant, “perpetuate discriminatory and potentially unconstitutional predictive policing practices,” “provide the government with unprecedented powers of surveillance that upset traditional expectations of privacy,” and “undercut democracy.”
Also in Virginia, investigative journalists previously submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for Flock information from various police departments in the state. They found that the fees were inconsistent and sometimes excessive. While some departments provided the information for free, others charged thousands of dollars, with one quote coming in at just over $73K.They argue that the absence of a fee cap prevents ordinary people from understanding how the ALPR systems are actually used.
And finally, a nationwide chain has been called out for their partnership with Flock. Back in August 2025, 404 Media reported that Home Depot and Lowe's were sharing data from their parking lot Flock cameras with law enforcement. In advance of Home Depot’s annual shareholder’s meeting (coming upon May 21st), two Home Depot shareholders filed a proposal asking the company’s board of directors to produce a report “assessing risks to customers’ data privacy rights arising from the company’s sharing of sensitive customer data with third parties,” such as via the Flock cameras in their parking lots. The proposal goes on to explain possible financial and legal difficulties that may result from such data sharing, including data breaches and conflicts with evolving state privacy laws, as well as cites the company’s reputational risk from “frequent immigration enforcement raids” near stores. The proposal explicitly describes the problems inherent in a Flock contract, stating that “dependence on vendor-managed and provided surveillance networks and audit reports, without independent verification,” may “hinder detection of unauthorized access or misuse.” Basically, this boils down to: we can’t trust Flock to audit themselves nor protect customer data. (We previously reported on Flock’s abysmal track record with respect to cybersecurity.) The board of directors is recommending that shareholders vote against the proposal, alleging that sufficient oversight and auditing already take place. We wholeheartedly disagree with this assessment and urge stakeholders to vote for the proposal.
If you’re a shareholder, attend the meeting and make your voice heard! If you’re not, please spread the word! You can read the proposal and the board’s response here. Stay tuned for more on this topic!
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