Amid Backlash, Surveillance Company Flock Is Cutting Staff

Flock Safety, the AI-powered license plate reader company operating 120,000 cameras nationwide, is planning to cut roughly 18 percent of its staff, or 270 workers, according to a Reuters report. The Oakland-based advocacy group Secure Justice says 90 of the 214 cities that have dropped Flock since 2021 cancelled contracts in August 2026 alone, and a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled this week that the company's technology violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights after a sheriff's deputy used ALPRs to search a month of her location history. Judge Sara E. Hill wrote that officers using these systems "have access to a continuously updated location history for all vehicles caught on ALPR cameras within the network," calling it "a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance.

Sign up for the free https://www.motherjones.com/newsletters/?mj oac=Article Top No Oligarchs Mother Jones Daily . Flock Safety, the AI-powered traffic camera company that has everyone from Josh Hawley to Bernie Sanders angry, might be feeling the heat financially: Reuters reported Friday https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/09/flock-job-cuts that the company is planning to cut roughly 18 percent of its staff, or 270 workers. Flock, which operates a network of 120,000 cameras nationwide, is the largest maker of automated license plate readers ALPRs in the country. It’s also, as I previously reported https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/flock-contracts-cancelled-cameras-alpr-rekor-axon-florida-texas/ , the target of a massive wave of backlash, in part because so many police officers https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/police-losing-jobs-flock-cameras-alprs/ have been found abusing the technology. The Oakland-based advocacy group Secure Justice, which tracks automated license plate reader use on the municipal level, says that in the month of August more towns and cities cancelled their Flock contracts than ever before https://bsky.app/profile/securejustice.bsky.social/post/3mu3zxl7qw624 : of the 214 cities that have dropped Flock since 2021, 90 did so in August 2026. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/cities-terminate-flock-contracts-at-record-pace-in-august/ At least https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/06/business/flock-littleton-license-plate-camera-disable/ three towns https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/24/flock-safety-reinstalls-evanston-cameras/ have reported https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/story/latest-news/2025/12/09/flock-activated-camera-during-pause-chief-says-pushing-city-to-axe-contract/ that Flock reinstalled or reactivated their cameras after local officials ended their contracts. The first signs that Flock might be in money trouble came in September, when the company offered voluntary buyouts to employees. An internal email shared with Wired https://www.wired.com/story/flock-is-offering-voluntary-buyouts-to-employees/ offered a “generous” severance package to Flock employees willing to quit. Flock, which is worth more than $8 billion, may not meet its revenue goals this year as towns and counties cancel its contracts left and right. In addition to potential financial problems, Flock is now facing growing legal scrutiny: Earlier this week, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that its technology violated a woman’s Fourth Amendment rights, after a sheriff’s deputy used ALPRs to search a month’s worth of her location history. This marks one of the first times a judge has ruled on the constitutionality of ALPR searches, but does not create a binding precedent. “By virtue of how ALPR technology works…officers using these systems have access to a continuously updated location history for all vehicles caught on ALPR cameras within the network,” Judge Sara E. Hill wrote in her ruling. “This is a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance.”