D.C.-area backlash grows against Flock. Here's what to know
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Localities around D.C. are voicing concerns — and floating bans — over Flock's controversial license plate readers, but the DMV is hardly in lockstep over the rapidly expanding surveillance technology.
Why it matters: The automated cameras can help police find stolen cars, missing people and suspects. But their ability to track millions of innocent drivers — and potentially make that information available across jurisdictions — has fueled a growing privacy backlash and calls for tighter oversight or removal.
- Around the DMV, the debate is increasingly about who can search that data, how long it's kept and whether it can ultimately reach federal immigration authorities.
Driving the news: Scrutiny intensified in D.C. and Alexandria last week, where police, elected officials and privacy advocates are raising alarms about Flock.
- D.C. Police Union president Gregg Pemberton called license plate readers a "powerful investigative tool," but warned that Flock's technology can also assemble detailed records of people who aren't suspected of crimes, per the Washington Post.
- The union is calling on the D.C. Council to regulate the technology after alleging MPD improperly used it to investigate officers, which MPD disputes.
- The union has filed a grievance over the incident. MPD tells Axios it'll be resolved through arbitration.
This week, D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, sent a letter to MPD seeking answers about its Flock policies and how the cameras have been used in investigations.
By the numbers: As of January, MPD reported 98 fixed and 68 mobile license plate readers, including 71 Flock readers.
- MPD tells Axios it has tightened some guardrails around Flock, adding routine audits.
- Earlier this year, MPD stopped allowing thousands of officers across the U.S. to directly search its license plate data, instead requiring outside agencies to submit requests.
Across the Potomac, leaders are going further.
- Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and two council members have said they don't see a future for Flock after questions emerged over how officers used the system.
- Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said audits found clerical errors but no "malicious misuse." The department is exploring competing vendors that McGuire says could offer stronger safeguards.
- "While I do think there's a role for technology … I do not think there's a role for Flock in this community," Gaskins said at a community meeting last week.
Between the lines: Alexandria says its 61 police-operated Flock cameras aren't shared directly with federal agencies, according to the Post.
- But it does share data with more than 150 Virginia law enforcement agencies, including 11 with agreements to participate in federal immigration enforcement.
Zoom out: Alexandria isn't alone. At least 20 Virginia localities have pulled back from Flock since July, according to Cardinal News, and bipartisan state lawmakers are planning to propose legislation to ban the technology statewide.
The other side: Some local police departments are standing by the technology. Fairfax County, which is facing its own "DeFlock" campaign, says its cameras have helped recover stolen vehicles, locate 57 missing people and support more than 1,700 felony charges.
- Montgomery County police have similarly defended license plate readers as a critical investigative tool amid auto thefts — while stressing that their system isn't Flock.
Friction point: Privacy advocates say ditching Flock for another vendor doesn't resolve the bigger concern: Police would still have technology capable of creating searchable records of where vehicles have been and when.
- That's part of the debate playing out across the region: Some Alexandria council members have questioned whether switching vendors would be enough.