Around 1,600 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, including units from Flock Safety, operate across the Kansas City metro area. While police credit them with solving crimes, they face intense backlash over privacy concerns, data sharing, and recent local controversies, leading towns like Gardner and Wellsville to cancel their contracts.
What Flock Cameras Do
- Data Collected: Capture license plates, vehicle make, model, color, and unique features like bumper stickers.
- Storage & Privacy: Data is typically stored for 30 days (though changes to a 7-day default are proposed) and shared across jurisdictions without warrants, sparking local resistance groups like Eyes Off KC.
- Vandalism: Several cameras in the metro have been vandalized or chopped down amid the public outcry.
Where They Are Located
- Concentrated heavily in Jackson County, Missouri, and Johnson County, Kansas.
- Crowdsourced locations can be viewed on community-mapped tools like DeFlock
There is a lot of National Debate that these AI driven cameras violate our privacy rights and violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. There are also a large number of stories coming out of how the system is being illegally used or improperly used.
Flock cameras cut down as KC metro pushback grows
The pushback against cameras that read license plates is growing in the Kansas City metro, where one town canceled its contract and a former detective faces criminal charges over alleged misuse.
Kansas City Residents Rally Against Flock Surveillance Cameras
News Story by KHSB 41 News on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JDHmjZAb5M
Hundreds of Flock cameras watch Kansas City. Who and what are they recording?
From the World Wide Web to the PATRIOT Act to the Snowden leaks to the rapidly growing Big Data Era and beyond, debates over technology and its capacity to help or harm the public have been recurring topics in political debate and popular culture.
Flock camera helps police catch Odessa shooting suspect after high-speed chase
A man wanted in connection with a shooting in Odessa, Missouri, is now in police custody after he was spotted on Flock camera surveillance in a different county Thursday morning.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office announced on social media that just after 8:30 a.m., deputies arrested 36-year-old Brendan Freed of Bates City, Missouri, following a high-speed chase and crash.
Kansas Citians call to action against Flock cameras; police report more cases of tampering with cameras
Kansas Citians call to action against Flock cameras; police report more cases of tampering with cameras. But law enforcement says they are using the AI technology to help track criminals and close cases nationwide.
