Here’s How To Know If You’ve Been ‘Flocked’ In New York

NEW YORK — Police in New York are among thousands of agencies nationwide using automated license plate readers to photograph vehicles and add the images to searchable databases.

Flock Safety, the largest provider of fixed license plate readers, says its cameras help police solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles and find missing or endangered people. Civil rights groups warn the same technology can track motorists who are not suspected of crimes and reveal trips to workplaces, medical clinics, religious centers or political events.

Flock says it has deployed about 120,000 cameras across 49 states. Its customers include more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies, along with local governments, businesses, schools, homeowner associations and property managers.

Residents can search Have I Been Flocked by state and police jurisdiction to review Flock audit logs obtained through public records requests. Depending on what records are available, users may see how often an agency searched the system, the reasons officers gave and whether a particular license plate appeared in the logs.

Data shows that Nassau County police made 1,112 Flock camera searches in June alone, gathering information on offenses ranging from moving violations to suspected terrorism. In the same timespan, Have I Been Flocked data shows Suffolk County police making 1,194 searches through Flock’s database, while the Suffolk DA’s office made 488 searches.

The open-source DeFlock project also maintains a crowdsourced map showing reported locations of automated license plate readers. The map is not an official or complete inventory, but it may identify cameras reported on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley or elsewhere in New York.

Residents can also search police policies, city council agendas, meeting minutes, contracts and purchasing records for terms such as “Flock Safety” or “automated license plate reader.”

Privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, have called for warrants, tighter limits on data sharing, shorter retention periods and regular audits. Flock rejects the description of its system as mass surveillance, arguing that its cameras capture vehicles only at fixed public locations rather than following them continuously.

Unless local rules or contracts specify otherwise, Flock says vehicle data is automatically deleted after 30 days.

• Read more: Crime-Solving Tool Or Mass Surveillance: Inside Flock’s Camera Network