Flock Safety Shared California Drivers' Plate Data with Feds 1.6 Million Times — Class Action Filed

Your License Plate, Shared 1.6 Million Times

Flock Safety's automated license-plate-reader cameras blanket American towns. In California, where the law forbids sending that data out of state, a lawsuit says the company did exactly that — millions of times, including to federal immigration enforcement.

The Class Action

On February 26, 2026, an Oakland-based law firm filed a class action in San Francisco Superior Court alleging Flock Safety illegally shared California drivers' location data with federal agencies including ICE, CBP, the FBI, and ATF. California law explicitly bans sharing ALPR data outside the state.

1.6 Million Queries

The scale is the headline. San Francisco Police Department cameras were searched by out-of-state agencies more than 1.6 million times over a seven-month period. In Ventura County, investigators found 364,000 unauthorized searches of local plate data.

The 'Vendor-Based Issue'

On February 27, 2026, the Oxnard Police Department suspended all of its Flock cameras after discovering that even though it had set access to 'California only,' a 'vendor-based issue' enabled a 'nationwide query' feature — meaning the geographic safeguard agencies relied on simply didn't hold.

Too Little, Too Late?

Flock introduced an admin toggle in January 2026 to let agencies switch off federal sharing with one click. But by then, plate data from its national network had already flowed to federal agencies — and the lawsuit argues the damage to California drivers' privacy was already done.