Police departments across the United States failed to properly redact license plate surveillance data released in response to public records requests, leading to the public exposure of a large dataset tied to the license plate recognition company Flock Safety.
The data was later compiled into a searchable website called HaveIBeenFlocked, which allows individuals to determine whether their license plate may have been queried by law enforcement using Flock’s system. The dataset includes 2.3 million license plates and tens of millions of search queries conducted by thousands of police departments that contract with Flock.
The issue was first reported by the technology news outlet 404 Media. According to its reporting, the released audit logs contained detailed records of law enforcement activity, including searches related to investigations, surveillance targets, suspects, and crime victims. In some cases, the logs also recorded the stated reasons officers searched for particular license plates.
For example, searches using the term “protest” return nearly 1,000 results, listing specific agencies along with dates and times the queries were made. The breadth of the data has raised concerns among privacy advocates about how license plate surveillance information is handled and disclosed.
Flock Safety operates automated license plate reading cameras in hundreds of cities nationwide. The company provides technology to law enforcement agencies, homeowners associations, and private entities. A third party representing Flock described the released dataset as “an immediate threat,” citing potential risks to public safety and law enforcement operations.
The creator of HaveIBeenFlocked, Cris van Pelt, said the website does not introduce new information but reorganizes data that was already made public by government agencies. Van Pelt argued that existing safeguards failed to prevent the disclosure in the first place.
“This information represents a fraction of what’s being shared with Flock and its government, commercial, and private partners on a daily basis,” van Pelt wrote. “Policies exist to prevent the release of this information — they are not adhered to. Laws and regulations exist to enforce the policies — they go unenforced.”
Flock has taken a sharply different view. In an email to 404 Media, the company characterized the site as “a website that is doxxing cops during active investigations.” Internally, Flock initially told law enforcement agencies that the exposure stemmed from “increased public records act/FOIA activity seeking by the public,” according to an email obtained through a records request.
Van Pelt says Flock has attempted to have the website taken down by asserting intellectual property violations through a third-party company and warning web hosting providers that the site poses a risk to officer safety. Cloudflare, one of the site’s service providers, has so far declined to remove it, stating there is “insufficient evidence of a violation.”
At the same time, Flock has reportedly reduced the amount of detail included in its audit logs, which could limit the scope of information released in future public records requests.
The dispute is part of a broader pattern of tension between Flock and critics of license plate surveillance. Last year, the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to DeFlock, an open-source project that maps the locations of Flock cameras nationwide.
In another incident, Flock CEO Garrett Langley contacted the police chief of Staunton, Virginia, as the city debated canceling its contract with the company following public complaints. In that email, Langley described criticism of Flock as a “coordinated attack” and said opponents were “activist groups who want to defund the police, weaken public safety, and normalize lawlessness.”
Staunton officials rejected that characterization and ultimately terminated the city’s contract with Flock. Police Chief Jim Williams wrote that residents were raising concerns about surveillance and data use through lawful and democratic means.
“In short,” Williams wrote, “it is democracy in action.”
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