How Flock cameras are used in New Orleans metro
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Activists and citizens across the political spectrum are pushing back against license plate readers made by Flock and similar companies, fueled by privacy concerns and suspected police misuse.
Why it matters: Though touted as a boon to public safety, Flock cameras are suddenly emerging as the next big target of populist anti-tech, pro-privacy sentiment.
How it works: Flock and other automated license plate reader cameras, or ALPRs, are placed on streets and highways and use AI to capture and store information like car license plate numbers, car make and other features.
The big picture: Flock has over 120,000 cameras across the country, the company tells Axios.
- Though not all under Flock's brand, there are around 400 ALPRs in the New Orleans metro, according to Deflock, an open-source map tracking the tech.
- Most are around busy roadways, though private institutions also have them installed. Tulane University, for example, uses Flock cameras to track campus traffic, according to the Hullabaloo's reporting.
What they're saying: Advocates say the cameras help quickly track down criminals, making cities safer.
- "Look, it's a game changer in law enforcement. It's a force multiplier," Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley recently told Fox 8 of the department's 78 Flock cameras.
- Opponents say they're a form of constant surveillance that infringes on residents' civil liberties. Some have even turned to sabotaging the cameras.
State of play: It's not just ALPRs keeping watch on New Orleans.
- The city-operated Real Time Crime Center is tied into hundreds of cameras, which offer "near-complete camera coverage in areas like the French Quarter and near the Caesars Superdome," according to a recent Flock blog post. It wasn't immediately clear whether the RTCC uses Flock cameras.
- The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and NOPD also have expanding collections of drones.
Project NOLA, a nonprofit with about 5,000 cameras across New Orleans, uses facial recognition within its network and has drawn scrutiny for partnering with NOPD.
- That partnership remains paused, founder Bryan Lagarde says, though NOPD maintains access to the organization's live and archived video feeds.
- Project NOLA will also notify NOPD if its cameras capture video of serious crimes, Lagarde says. "When a bad thing happens in front of our cameras, like a shooting or homicide, we start looking and use facial recognition to try to figure out who that is, and we can provide that as [an unsolicited] tip to police."