By Nathaniel Percy
Los Angeles Daily News
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department , citing privacy and data ownership concerns, has ended its agreement to use Flock Safety license plate readers, authorities said Monday, July 13 .
In 2023, the department signed a three-year agreement with the Atlanta -based company to install 138 of its pole-mounted cameras within the city, according to a report to be discussed at a Tuesday Board of Police Commissioners meeting. That agreement expired Saturday, July 11.
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Those cameras capture images of vehicles and license plates on roadways.
In a brief statement, a spokeswoman with the department confirmed that it did not renew the agreement with Flock Safety.
“We wanted to address some of the civil liberty and civil rights concerns and ensure that there is clarity over the terms regarding privacy, data ownership and security,” read the statement, sent by LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman.
Dean Gialamas , the department’s chief information officer, told ABC Los Angeles that the department wants stronger contractual protections regarding ownership and control of data collected by Flock cameras and that the department would suspend use of Flock’s system until the issues were resolved.
Gialamas was not made available by the department for an interview on Monday.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Board of Police Commissioners was scheduled to hear from the department about its use of Flock Safety equipment at a meeting Tuesday.
Police were continuing discussions with Flock Safety about revising the agreement, with LAPD seeking updated language addressing privacy and data storage to be included in the new contract.
Flock Safety officials, in a statement, said the decision came as a surprise.
“LAPD has used license plate reader technology for years and continues to rely on it today,” the statement read. “Flock’s position has been simple: if this technology is going to be used, it should be used with strong privacy protections, strict auditability, and clear oversight.”
The company said it has been working with LAPD to ensure that use of the technology also included clear accountability and appropriate limits around data access. They were “confident that through ongoing discussions with LAPD , we can clear up the current misconceptions that led to Friday’s disappointing pause.”
Motorola Solutions and Axon Enterprise also provide ALPR technology to the LAPD.
But public concerns over the department’s use of Flock cameras emerged after an October 2025 report by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights that said Flock had tested an information-sharing program that allowed federal agencies to access license plate data collected by local agencies without knowledge or consent from those agencies.
Other jurisdictions, including South Pasadena , Mountain View and Santa Cruz in California as well as Hillsborough, North Carolina , and Flagstaff, Arizona , have either ended or suspended their relationships with Flock, according to a report by the Office of Inspector General , which was to be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.
That report, in part, recommended that the LAPD suspend installation of new ALPR cameras and enter into no new ALPR-related contracts until the city hears from the public and conducts a broader reassessment of vendors and data-sharing practices.
Police say the devices help officers track suspects involved in crimes. The department has said it does not use Flock’s cameras to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement .
“The use is strictly for law enforcement purposes, and it is inherently not for any immigration purposes,” Gialamas told ABC Los Angeles. “So the cameras can be searched. If there’s criminal activity, there needs to be an active case, users have to be registered in the system, trained in the system.”
Before the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday morning, members of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition plan to rally outside LAPD headquarters to demand the department permanently end its use of ALPR technology.
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