DeFlock29.org – raising awareness of mass surveillance in the high desert

In December 2024, the Twentynine Palms City Council approved a no-bid, sole-source contract with Flock Safety to install 31 ALPR cameras throughout the city, for an annual cost of $102,300.

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car’s location, date, and time. They also capture your car’s make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points.

These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. These systems are marketed as indispensable tools to fight crime, but they ignore the powerful tools police already have to track criminals, such as cell phone location data, creating a loophole that doesn’t require a warrant or even probable cause.

This mass surveillance system is a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. It continuously records your movements into a private nationwide database that can be searched by thousands of other agencies and sold to data brokers. Studies show 99.9% of this data is not related to any crime. In addition to license plate photos, these cameras are capable of streaming live and recorded video. Security researchers have already found numerous vulnerabilities, potentially exposing this data to hackers and stalkers.

Click here to read more local details about our city’s installation.

Sign the petition to terminate the contracts for both 29 Palms and Yucca Valley.

Resources

For a detailed explanation of how ALPRs are a threat to privacy, see this ACLU article as well as this EFF article on ALPRs. Below are some links to learn more about the risks.

Louis Rossmann

DeFlock.org map showing most Flock cameras around the country
Find out if you’ve been “Flocked” by searching your own license plate at haveibeenflocked.com. They also have a great compilation of news stories about Flock.
ACLU: Flock data being used by ICE
Senator Ron Wyden: letter calling for FTC investigation of Flock
EFF: How Cops Are Using Flock Safety’s ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists
EFF: The Human Toll of ALPR Errors

Benn Jordan

False and misleading claims by Flock

Claim: The cameras record still images only.
Facts: In July 2025, Flock announced that all LPR cameras would receive a free upgrade to record and stream live video.

Claim: All footage and data is owned by the customer (sheriff)
Facts: Flock has changed their terms of service several times, redefining what “customer data” is and how they are allowed to use and share it. It’s hard to keep up with these ever-changing policies, but each version gives them plenty of loopholes to do what they will with the data. Regardless of ownership, the contract grants broad permission to use and disclose it.

October 2024 definition of customer data

December 2025 definition of customer data

February 2026 definition of customer data

Claim: Access to the Flock system is restricted to authorized staff of the sheriff’s department
Facts: Flock does not require MFA (multi-factor authentication) for user accounts, which makes it easy for officers to share their password with folks from other agencies, and also vulnerable to phishing or brute force attacks. Audit logs show at least 5 officers from SBSD running searches 24 hours a day, which strongly suggests their accounts are either shared or hacked.

Claim: Officers can only search the system with a valid case number or incident report.
Facts: The “reason” field is optional, and some agencies have instructed their officers to be “as vague as permissible”. Audit logs show less than 30% of SBSD searches reference a case number. Many searches cite reasons which don’t refer to any crime, such as “protest” or “No Kings”. Over 30,000 searches cite meaningless reasons like “inv”.

audit logs from SBSD showing suspicious search reasons

Claim: Flock does not have a contract with ICE or any other federal agencies.
Facts: Flock had a contract with DHS Customs & Border Protection until August 2025, when it was terminated after concerns about unauthorized data sharing. Even without a direct contract, there are several ways ICE agents can access Flock data, including password sharing by other officers, as reported by 404 Media.

Claim: The Flock system is no different than putting an officer on the corner, writing down the license plate of every car driving by.
Facts: The Flock system records tens of billions of images every month with AI assisted object recognition and tagging. At scale, this system is more similar to placing a GPS tracker on every car, logging its movements 24/7.