Get the Flock out of Greenville-Spartanburg

About the AI powered cameras

Flock's License Plate Reader (LPR) and Mobile Security Trailer product lines are installed on public roads and in parking lots throughout Greenville and Spartanburg counties through contracts with our police and sheriff's departments (thank you, Chuck Wright). The cameras take pictures of everyone who passes by and upload them to Flock's cloud servers. Then, with the power of AI, officers can instantly search through all the past data for the following:

Vehicles ^[1][2]

• License plate number
• Make and model
• Color
• Dents, damage, different colored panels
• Bumper stickers

People ^[3][4]

• Clothing type and color
• Height and weight
• Gender
• Race

This system is constantly tracking our movements. Depending on the locations and number of cameras, they could gather or infer information like when and how often you leave your home (and if you left your kids there alone), what church you go to, what protests you've been to, you name it. All that data, in one centralized database. These are not your grandfather's license plate readers.

Violation of the 4th Amendment

Flock cameras capture and save pictures of everyone who passes by, not just those who are under reasonable suspicion. All images are stored for at least 30 days, just in case. Officers can search through this data at any time, without needing a warrant.

Litigation is underway against the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for installing hundreds of cameras across the state against our knowledge, without our consent, in what the SC Public Interest Foundation is arguing is a violation of our state constitution.^[6] In Virginia, residents have filed a lawsuit against the City of Norfolk, arguing that Flock cameras violate the 4th Amendment.^[7]

Flock's Nationwide coverage

An estimated 80,000+ cameras across the U.S. are centralized with Flock.^[8] This includes LPRs, PTZ (pan tilt zoom) cameras, mobile units, and 3rd party integration from government agencies and private businesses. Any agent with a Flock account in the program can access any camera in the program. Not every agency is opted into this. Are Greenville and Spartanburg opted in? If not, what agencies have they chosen to share our data with? This webpage will be updated once answers become released to the public.

National LPR Network^[9]

• 5000+ communities covered
• 4800+ agencies enrolled
• 20 billion+ reads per month

Unvetted surveillance tech is a national security risk

Flock is a private company contracting with the government. Their cameras are everywhere. If our enemies gained access to this system, they would have the ultimate AI powered intel on us. So how secure is Flock's technology?

Thankfully, independent researchers have taken it upon themselves to ethically hack offline cameras in search of vulnerabilities. ^[10] They found 51. For example, one unit was running on an old version of Android that stopped getting support and security updates in 2022.

The food service industry, for example, has to have licenses and inspections. Flock is under no such oversight. The only security standards they are beholden to are the ones their executives set depending on how much overhead they're willing to spend.

For more details about the cybersecurity vulnerabilities, visit the Learn More page.

How Flock has already been abused

Here are three examples of Flock gone wrong. These are not isolated incidents, but rather an exhibit of systemic issues and lack of accountability and oversight:

• Espanola, NM: An innocent woman and her 12 year old sister were held at gunpoint, suspected of a stolen vehicle. Flock LPR had misread a "2" for a "7."^[11]
• St. Augustine, FL: A suspect attempted to kidnap a young woman from her place of work. A Flock alert sent police to an innocent man's apartment. Meanwhile, the suspect was arrested in a routine traffic stop.^[12][13]
• Sedgewick, KS: The Police Chief used Flock to stalk his ex. He did 228 searches over 4 months of her and her new boyfriend's cars. He was caught by chance while under investigation for an unrelated misconduct case, not due to any auditing system.^[14] Good thing we had Chuck Wright, the beacon of integrity, as our sheriff all these years...

Inside of law enforcement offices is one thing, but what about other bad actors? Cybersecurity weaknesses were mentioned in the previous section, and one example of how this has already gone past hypotheticals is with the leak of officer credentials on the dark web.^[15] Flock does not require users to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA). Whoever purchased those Flock user credentials possibly has unfettered access to an AI powered nation-wide surveillance network.

We don't have to sacrifice freedom for safety

Here are a few examples of communities across the country who said "no" to mass surveillance by Flock and canceled or lapsed their contracts:

• Guthrie, OK April 2025^[16]
• Austin, TX June 2025^[17] - noalprs.org
• Sedona, AZ Sept. 2025^[18] - livefreeaz.com
• Hillsborough, NC Nov. 2025^[19]

As you can see, anti-surveillance is a non-partisan issue. The Flock system could be used by the government to find people who aren't wearing their mask during a pandemic, or provide intel for ICE raids. The system could be used to search for cross and 2nd amendment bumper stickers, for rainbow and Palestine bumper stickers, for Clemson or Gamecocks stickers ;). Everyone has their reasons, and united we have the power to protect our freedom from government overreach.

If the people who vote like you don't want this, and the people who vote opposite of you don't want this, then why are we all being subjected to it?