Activists Declare Victory as LAPD Abandons Flock Technology

FEATURING HAMID KHAN - The Los Angeles Police Department just announced it would not renew its contract with Flock, the controversial company whose AI-powered cameras surveil the public. The LAPD, which is the third largest city-level police force in the US, joins a growing number of law enforcement departments ending their contracts with Flock. 

For years now, police departments have used Flock technology to automatically read license plates and share databases, claiming that it helps reduce crime. Instead, the technology is being used to spy on people, including immigrants and abortion seekers. Police have even used it to stalk romantic interests. Moreover, the technology routinely misidentifies people, causing serious harm. 

Ahead of a week of action from August 16-22 aimed at shining a light on the dangers of Flock technology, we turn to an LA-based activist today to ask what led to LAPD’s abandonment of Flock technology and how other communities in the US are demanding the same.

Hamid Khan is an organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, whose mission is to build community-based power to dismantle police surveillance, spying, and infiltration programs. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the movement to end law enforcement's use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Tell me first whether or not this particular announcement by the LAPD that it would not be renewing its contract with Flock came as a surprise to you?

Hamid Khan: Well, this didn't really, quite frankly, come as a surprise to us because we have been building a fight since February of 2025 against this particular extremely harmful surveillance technology, Flock Safety, which is based out of Georgia and is of national significance because currently, as Flock claims, it's operating in 43 different states with almost 5,000 different police departments, which are getting the camera feed and data as a result of Flock automated license plate reader feed. 

So we've been building this fight, and we are present at the police commission every Tuesday, mapping out through deep research, identifying the extreme harm that this data sharing has caused, not just in Los Angeles, but all across the country.