Police are using surveillance tech to stalk love interests. Dystopia, here we come | Arwa Mahdawi

Who do you think is the world’s most unlikely tech mogul? Elon Musk is obviously a major contender. Digital warlord Palmer Luckey is also up there.

Although there is a lot of competition, Garret Langley also deserves recognition. The CEO of tech company Flock may not be a household name, but his controversial surveillance technology is quickly intruding into everyday life. If you live in the United States, there’s probably a Flock product on a highway or parking lot near you. The company, which largely sells its products to law enforcement, makes automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that capture license plate data and help track a vehicle’s location. (If you would like to check if your license plate has been Flock searched you can do so at haveibeenflocked.com)

Capturing driver data doesn’t seem great at first glance. But what makes Flock alarming is the scale of its surveillance network — there are more than 80,000 Flock cameras across the United States — and the ease with which the data is accessible. An ACLU investigation last year found that Flock’s default agreement with police departments gave the company the right to share people’s license plate data with federal and local agencies for “investigative purposes.” Various police departments reportedly shared driver surveillance data with ICE as part of Donald Trump’s deportation campaign. (Flock says it “does not work with ICE,” although its website says the federal agencies it partners with “may establish 1:1 sharing relationships” with other law enforcement agencies.)

Some police officers also appear to be using Flock data to stalk their exes, partners, and potential love interests. The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, recently conducted an analysis of media reports and found at least 14 cases across the United States in which police officers allegedly accessed ALPR data to “keep tabs on their romantic interests, including current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their attention in public.”

Even though almost all of the officers involved were criminally charged and lost their jobs, it is likely that there are many more than 14 examples of this type of behavior. According to the Institute for Justice, only a few of the cases analyzed were discovered through internal police investigations; Alleged police misconduct only surfaced after a victim searched his license plate on HaveIbeenflocked.com. And I’m sure you can imagine how many other victims might have been too afraid to report a police officer to the authorities.

It could be argued that all systems have the potential for abuse and that it is unfair to blame Flock for the bad behavior of a few police officers. The company said it supports “democratically authorized governing bodies” that determine how its technology is used. But as Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney who represents residents in lawsuits challenging their cities’ ALPR surveillance network, noted: “The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of each officer.” » There is enormous potential for abuse.

Flock has also arguably made it far too easy for agents to access a powerful database without a warrant. A 2025 Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) analysis found that some police departments were using the Flock network to monitor activist groups and investigate protests. The EFF and other civil liberties groups have argued that a search warrant should be required for such searches; with Flock, however, police only need to enter text into a “pattern” field in the system.

Similarly, 404 Media revealed last year that a Texas sheriff’s office searched ALPR data to track down a woman suspected of having managed an abortion herself. The agent searched 6,809 different camera networks, including in states where abortion access is protected by law. The search file simply stated the following reason: “had an abortion, looking for a wife.”

This year, Flock announced updates to incorporate safeguards that limit federal access and restrict certain data sharing. Nonetheless, dozens of cities have abandoned the company due to concerns about the extent of its technology’s use.

However, this reaction will not stop Flock’s noble ambitions. Langley, Flock’s CEO, introduced himself as a sort of real-life Batman and said he believed his surveillance technology would help eradicate nearly all crime in the United States in less than 10 years. And after installing license plate readers on roads across the United States, Flock is now expanding its drone program. “I think we can have a city without crime and civil liberties,” Langley told Forbes, optimistically. “We can have it all.” I don’t know anything about it. If surveillance drones weaponized by an increasingly authoritarian regime in cahoots with morally bankrupt tech moguls is what having it all looks like, I think I’ll pass.

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