When Kait Merritt-O’Toole, a resident of Framingham, Massachusetts, first learned that her city’s police department was actively using license plate reading (LPR) cameras from technology company Flock Safety she wasn’t immediately concerned. It was just another tool for law enforcement to track down criminals and help officers do their jobs, she thought at the time. But her perspective quickly changed, she said, when she started reading up on the company and was informed by others about the privacy and security concerns at the center of Flock Safety’s technology. One of her biggest concerns is how the data the company collects – from licence plate information to a car’s make, model, and color – is used and stored. “I went from, ‘Oh, the police are going to solve crime’ to ‘Oh, they don’t need this information,’” she said.
Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, Flock Safety describes itself as “a public safety technology” company that “helps agencies locate missing people, recover stolen vehicles and investigate crimes more quickly” through its thousands of LPR cameras and nation-wide network. The company says it has more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and works with everyone from neighborhood groups and business partners to towns and cities.
