The public safety technology company, Flock Safety, will change the rules of its network of license plate reading cameras due to doubts about the use of its data in investigations, including immigration investigations. The company announced new restrictions on when a law enforcement agency can share information with other corporations, including the ability to block ICE-related queries.

Several journalistic investigations have shown that Flock's data was also used in searches linked to immigration authorities, although the company insists that ICE does not have direct access to its platform.

More than 4,000 searches related to ICE

In May 2025, 404 Media revealed records showing more than 4,000 searches conducted by state and local police for terms such as “ICE,” “immigration,” “ICE ERO,” or “ICE WARRANT.” According to the media, some consultations were made at the request of federal authorities or as informal favors.

The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism found nearly 3,000 immigration-related searches on Virginia's Flock network over 12 months. In Denver, Colorado Newsline reported more than 1,400 accesses linked to ICE or immigration between June 2024 and April 2025.

The problem is not necessarily that ICE enters the system directly, but rather that a local police force can consult the records and allow the information to be used by other agencies. There arises the fear that immigrant movements will be exposed.

Flock puts limits on data sharing

Now Flock will allow each department to establish which investigations can justify access by other agencies, AP revealed. A city may authorize searches related to violent crimes but prevent its data from being used for immigration enforcement.

The company will also reduce the default storage of license plates from 30 to 7 days and will make it mandatory to link each search with a case number. Additionally, it will activate tools to detect unusual behavior.

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock, acknowledged that the company should have acted sooner: “We should act faster.”

The change represents a turnaround for a network that, according to Flock, has more than 120,000 cameras and processes about 20 billion license plate scans a month.

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