The Detroit Police Department (DPD) routinely uses Flock Safety’s license plate cameras as an investigative tool, with hundreds of these always-on devices operating across the city. The technology records passing vehicles, collecting information like color and license plate numbers. Detroit shares this data with dozens of other law enforcement agencies throughout the metro area.
Public records show that between June 2025 and May 2026, Detroit police officers searched Flock camera networks at least 26,330 times, averaging more than 78 searches daily. These particular searches were routed to camera networks outside of Michigan and turned up in records from agencies operating those networks. The DPD did not provide a count of how many times its officers searched Flock cameras in total during that period. Data suggests that officers most often use the system to locate stolen vehicles or missing individuals. For example, motor vehicle theft was the most common specific reason given for searching the network, though many searches were vaguely labeled as “investigation.”
DPD spokesperson Jackson Vidaurri stated that the department has seen “many cases move forward in their progress and be solved due to this technology.” However, Vidaurri did not provide specific data on how many crimes have been solved using Flock cameras. In a 2023 transparency filing, the DPD stated that license plate readers do not infringe on constitutionally protected information. The department also prohibits using the cameras for traffic or immigration law enforcement and does not allow their integration with facial recognition technology. Mandatory penalties are in place for officers who misuse the cameras.
Despite the department's assurances, residents and civil liberties groups have voiced concerns regarding the technology's benefits versus its potential for abuse. Tawana Petty, a digital and data justice organizer and lifelong Detroiter, commented in an email that the Flock network “advances the city’s trajectory as a panoptic city which consistently conflates surveillance with safety.” She added that this is especially concerning during a period of rising authoritarianism and racial violence across the country.
The City of Detroit's contract with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company, amounts to $6.25 million through 2029. This contract grants the DPD access to a national network of cameras operated by various agencies, with DPD searches reaching cameras in seven states and operated by nine different police departments. While most out-of-state searches were categorized as “lookup” for simple license plate numbers, a few dozen used FreeForm, a Flock product that allows broad, plain-language searches to identify individuals by clothing descriptions, for instance.
Gabrielle Dresner, a policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, noted that a statewide surveillance network can reveal personal details about where people live, work, and spend their time. She said, “We’re trading off our privacy and our right to move about the state freely, and then we’re getting in return, supposedly, safety and security.” The nonprofit Institute for Justice has documented 236 cases of automated license plate reader misuse since 2018, with stalking being a common form of abuse where officers tracked current or former romantic partners.
Beyond privacy concerns, the technology has also proven error-prone. In 2023, Detroit police improperly relied on a license plate reader to connect a woman to a drive-by shooting, leading to her and her two-year-old son being detained. She later sued the department and won a $35,000 settlement. Flock Safety itself has faced criticism; reporting by 404 Media documented the company teaching police to surveil protesters, misrepresenting whether its cameras record video (they do), and developing features to identify people rather than just vehicles. Flock cameras were also used in Texas for surveillance during a “death investigation” related to an abortion.
Opposition to Flock and digital surveillance is growing nationally, with hundreds of cities rejecting or ending contracts, and some cameras in the metro Detroit area being vandalized. Legislation introduced in Michigan this year aims to regulate how police use license plate readers and how the collected data is stored. The DPD currently deletes Flock “hits or reads” after 30 days unless they are part of an active investigation.
While the Flock network has contributed to solving a handful of crimes, particularly motor vehicle thefts—such as an incident near East 7 Mile Road and Conant Avenue where officers intercepted a stolen car detected by a Flock camera—it is not clear if the technology has reduced overall crime in Detroit or significantly increased the number of solved cases. Crime in the city has been declining for years, mirroring a broader national trend that began before the expansion of the Flock network. However, Outlier Media’s analysis of FBI crime data indicated a slight increase in the DPD's clearance rate for car thefts, from 4.1% in the two years before the Flock contract to 5.1% since it took effect.
