Cities across the country are giving in as residents eagerly push for the removal of Flock cameras, but after the cameras were taken down in some cities, multiple crimes remain unsolved.
The consequences played out in almost textbook fashion across three cities this summer after the cameras went dark. Beginning in June, California’s El Cerrito decommissioned 40 cameras after its city council voted 3-2 not to renew its contract with Flock. But just two days after the last cameras were removed in August, a man was killed in a fatal shooting, and the shooter and getaway driver fled the scene and remain at large.
Authorities would typically have turned to the two Flock cameras positioned at the intersection, but they had been removed just 48 hours before the shooting. Instead, investigators obtained footage of the suspect’s vehicle from a resident’s home security camera, but the license plate was unreadable. They ultimately relied on a neighboring agency — whose cameras were still operating — to identify the vehicle.
Residents in Framingham, Massachusetts, weren’t so lucky. The city ended its Flock contract in June following a months-long campaign by residents. Months later, a 39-year-old man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver who remains at large. Investigators only have a description of the vehicle and have not identified the driver.
The city’s own transparency records show that in past situations, Framingham police used Flock cameras as an investigative tool to find the city’s most wanted suspects. During the city’s four-year run with the cameras, authorities cited Flock cameras in more than 200 police reports.
Similarly, Houston police hoped to use the city’s Flock cameras to identify a suspected child predator accused of trying to lure a child into his car. But vandals had disabled several of the city’s Flock cameras in the past month, including three that investigators said could have potentially identified a man who attempted to lure a child into his vehicle.
“Unfortunately, some person that’s not really cool with the license plate reader technology chose to cut the three down,” Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz said.
Flock founder Garrett Langley, who launched the company with a mission to eliminate crime, said the incidents demonstrate what happens when investigators lose access to the technology.
“Every day, Flock helps solve crimes that would otherwise go unsolved. From finding missing children, to solving murders, violent crime, and recovering stolen vehicles, Flock gives investigators leads they didn’t have before,” Langley said. “That impact is why we started Flock, and it drives every decision we make about how this technology should be built and governed.”
Langley and his company have come under the microscope this summer after reports showing that authorities can also use Flock’s network to commit crime. Between September 2024 and June 2026, police officer Christopher Goodson used Flock cameras in Florida to track his estranged wife’s car more than 700 unauthorized times.
To solve crime, Flock has built the most expansive surveillance system ever deployed in the United States with 120,000 cameras in 49 states. Criticism over the mass surveillance has emerged from both sides of the aisle as Americans digest whether the cameras are worth their benefit.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said, “Do we want to live in an America where AI companies like Flock can work with the government to track our every movement?”
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) echoed his statements, saying, “Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church.” Hawley called the network of cameras an “unprecedented national surveillance network.”
The White House has not released an opinion on the camera network. President Donald Trump told Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese earlier this month, “You know, you have pros and cons, right? It’s being studied right now. We’ll have an answer sort of as to our views on it over the next couple of weeks.”
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