Surveillance company Flock cuts staff as privacy backlash grows; TechCrunch, October 9, 2026

Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch; Surveillance company Flock cuts staff as privacy backlash grows

"Surveillance camera maker Flock is cutting its workforce as the company faces ongoing and growing backlash to its license plate readers and people-tracking technology.

News of the staff cuts comes from Reuters, which reported that Flock is reducing its staff by 18%, or around 270 employees, across the board. The publication said the employees are leaving at the end of October following a voluntary buyout program...

Flock has faced heavy criticism and mounting pushback from communities across the United States and legislators looking to rein in the company’s privately run mass surveillance program. Flock has installed over 100,000 license plate-reading cameras across the U.S., which allow police and federal agents to track the location and whereabouts of vehicles passing by them. Dozens of police officers have been arrested, fired, or forced to resign for abusing access to Flock’s system to search, track, and stalk people without a warrant or their permission."

‘This is not what I signed up for’: Flock cameras raise privacy concerns across West Virginia; The Dominion Post, October 8, 2026

 

EVIE SAFRAN, The Dominion Post; ‘This is not what I signed up for’: Flock cameras raise privacy concerns across West Virginia

"For Monongalia County residents Lathwell and Paige Reiring, concerns over Flock cameras have created an unlikely point of political common ground.

Lathwell identifies as politically conservative, while Reiring is a Mountain Party candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates. Despite their political differences, both question how much information the government should be able to collect about people who have not been accused of a crime.

For Lathwell, the issue comes down to privacy.

"I don't like this at all," she said. "This is not what I signed up for."

Reiring's concerns center on the technology behind the cameras and the amount of data they can collect.

"For me, the issue is the automated aspect of ALPRs, automatic license plate readers, because a lot of these depend on AI-powered software and surveillance systems, which is where we get the harvesting of data," Reiring said.

Their concerns show how the debate surrounding Flock cameras does not fall neatly along traditional political lines. As the technology becomes more common in Monongalia County, residents from different sides of the political spectrum are raising similar questions about privacy, surveillance and the collection of their data.

As artificial intelligence becomes capable of doing tasks once left to people, Flock's automated license plate readers are doing the same for law enforcement - identifying vehicle information and making it searchable for officers.

The technology can speed up investigations. It also means information about ordinary drivers can be collected before they are suspected of a crime."

Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense; The Atlantic, September 1, 2026

David A. Graham , The Atlantic; Why the Flock Backlash Has Gotten So Intense

"As corporate names go, Flock is cleverly flexible. It evokes the many cameras that compose the company’s surveillance system and also a group of sheep, protected by a watchful shepherd. The recent backlash against the company, however, more closely resembles a flight of starlings, seeming to erupt out of nowhere and move as one unified body.

Flock Safety’s cameras are a network of automated license-plate readers (ALPRs), which snap images of passing cars and feed them into an AI-powered-data system. The company has contracts with police departments and government agencies as well as with some private companies. The crime-fighting power of such a tool isn’t hard to grasp: It allows law enforcement to track vehicles’ movements over any area where the readers exist. The privacy concerns about such a dragnet are just as easy to fathom."