How an Atlanta Suburb Ended Up Sharing Flock Data With More Than 2,000 Organizations
The Alpharetta Police Department in Georgia has built an extensive data-sharing network using Flock Safety surveillance cameras. This system allows over 2,000 agencies across the U.S. to access local license plate data, raising concerns about privacy and potential misuse of surveillance technology.
Why it matters
It highlights the rapid, largely unregulated expansion of law enforcement surveillance networks and the risks associated with sharing sensitive data across thousands of disparate agencies.
Alpharetta, a prosperous suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, is home to about 67,000 people, served by about 120 local police officers. It also hosts several dozen cameras sold by Flock Safety, the increasingly controversial surveillance company that collects license plate data and other information and makes it searchable by police.
Data captured by those Flock cameras, WIRED has learned via public records requests, is accessible to more than 2,000 police departments, colleges, airports, and government agencies across the United States. These range from Morehouse College to Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission and include Medicare fraud investigators in Illinois, a drug task force focused on east-central Missouri, and the inspector general of a federal agency.
In return, Alpharetta receives Flock data from more than 1,300 entities, which span from the prosecutor’s office of Whitley County, Indiana, to the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County, Michigan.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in