As cars pull in and out of the parking lot at L.A. State Historic Park in Chinatown, two nondescript-looking black cameras powered by solar panels quietly keep an eye on every vehicle entering or leaving the property.
The cameras are license plate readers made by Flock Safety, a controversial private surveillance company that works with thousands of police departments and cities in the United States.
Flock’s products—which range from automatic license plate readers (ALRPs) to more traditional cameras that can track people in real time—are marketed as AI solutions to help communities reduce crime.
Research, however, shows that Flock Safety’s technology isn’t as effective at reducing crime as the technology company claims. And critics argue that Flock’s license plate readers constitute unwarranted mass surveillance.
“The problem with mass surveillance is that it always expands beyond the uses for which it is initially justified—and sure enough, Flock’s system is undergoing insidious expansion across multiple dimensions,” wrote Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).