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Latest reporting

Investigative reporting from footnote4a.org

• No User, Only a Subject: Chatrie Tests Meet Plate Readers

  August 7, 2026

  A draft article by Orin Kerr maps three Chatrie tests. When applied to ALPR, they kill real-time crime centers.

• Own the narrative before someone else does

  July 31, 2026

  In three weeks, twenty agencies in fifteen states talked about "misinformation" and "accountability", following Flock's playbook. Let's compare the logs.

• Flock's Bishop Fox engagement: Six months later

  July 31, 2026

  It has been six months since Flock engaged Bishop Fox and promised the results of security audits would be "communicated transparently." To date, no security issues have been fixed, and no results have been communicated.

• This Deal Is Getting Worse All the Time: Flock's 911 Terms Now Live on Axon's Website

  July 29, 2026

  Flock's 911 product binds police agencies to terms hosted on prepared911.com and assigns ownership of your 911 calls to its competitor, Axon.

Legal and constitutional

• Carpenter v. United States (2018)

  The Supreme Court held that long-term collection of cell location data is a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant. Advocates and courts have applied this reasoning directly to ALPR data retention.

• Commonwealth v. McCarthy (MA, 2020)

  Massachusetts' highest court ruled that retaining ALPR data beyond 48 hours requires a search warrant. One of the few state-level rulings specifically addressing ALPR retention periods.

• Schmidt v. City of Norfolk (E.D. Va., 2026)

  Active federal case challenging Flock Safety on Fourth Amendment grounds. Litigated by the Institute for Justice. Outcome may directly affect how other cities can legally operate ALPR networks.

Investigations and reporting

• "When license plate readers get it wrong"

  CBS News, July 2025

• "One sleepy Virginia town, nearly 7 million hits"

  Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism / WHRO, September 2025

• "The Nationwide Revolt Against Flock Safety Cameras"

  New Republic, February 2026

• "Why some cities are canceling Flock contracts"

  NPR, February 2026

• "Police camera" investigation

  The Marshall Project, March 2026

• "Flock camera installations broke laws in at least five states"

  Forbes, February 2024

• "Police have used plate readers to stalk romantic interests at least 26 times"

  Institute for Justice, retrieved July 2026

Data and research

• "Data Driven: Explore How Cops Are Collecting and Sharing Our Travel Patterns"

  EFF / Maass & Lipton, 2021. An interactive tool mapping how police departments share vehicle location data across the country. Shows the national scope of ALPR networks.

• ALPR Audit Report

  Virginia State Crime Commission, January 2026. State audit documenting how many times Virginia's Flock networks were queried by outside agencies. The primary source for the nearly 7 million searches figure.

Organizations working on this

• Electronic Frontier Foundation Digital rights. Publishes ALPR research and tracks surveillance policy.
• ACLU Civil liberties. Has challenged ALPR deployments in several states.
• Institute for Justice Litigating Schmidt v. City of Norfolk, the active federal ALPR challenge.

Printable materials

Free downloads from deflock.org/store. Print and share.