A new public-records project lets drivers search Flock camera audit logs to determine whether an operator queried their license plate, why the search was reportedly conducted and which agencies are using the surveillance system.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Drivers concerned about how law enforcement and other government users access Flock Safety’s nationwide license-plate surveillance network now have a new way to examine some of those searches.
The website “Have I Been Flocked” has assembled Flock camera audit logs obtained through public-records requests and allows users to enter a license plate to see whether it appears in the collected search records.
According to the site, a plate appearing in its database indicates more than simply being photographed by a Flock camera. It means an operator using the Flock system actively searched for that license plate within the database.
The available audit records can also show the reason the operator entered for conducting the search.
The project is intended to provide greater visibility into how a privately operated surveillance network containing more than 120,000 AI-powered cameras is being used by police departments, local governments and other authorized users.
Its creators caution, however, that a match should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that a driver was the subject of a criminal investigation.
The person conducting the search may not have been a police officer, and there can be multiple reasons for querying a vehicle.
The website also does not tell users whether or when their vehicle physically passed a Flock camera. It examines audit logs showing searches conducted through the system rather than providing a complete history of a vehicle’s movements.
Records Sought From More Than 6,500 Agencies
The database was assembled through Freedom of Information Act and other public-records requests directed at 6,586 agencies around the country.
Its coverage is not comprehensive.
Some government agencies provide little access to Flock audit logs, while documents that are released can contain substantial redactions.
“The dataset is incomplete; few governments provide easy access to these logs, and the records we obtain are often redacted,” the project’s organizers warn.
That means the absence of a license plate from the database does not necessarily establish that nobody has ever searched for it through Flock.
Records may simply be unavailable, withheld, incomplete or outdated.
Coverage can therefore differ substantially depending on which government agency operates the cameras or has access to the system.
The project remains dependent on continuing public-records requests as organizers obtain additional audit information.
Flock Creates Searchable Records of Vehicles
Flock Safety is a private, for-profit technology company operating a large network of cameras capable of automatically capturing vehicle information in public spaces.
Its AI-enabled systems record license-plate data and create searchable records that participating law enforcement agencies and local governments can query.
Police departments and supporters of the technology argue that such systems can help officers quickly identify vehicles connected to crimes and generate investigative leads.
Privacy advocates have raised a different concern: that a network continuously recording vehicle information can create a broad record of people’s movements even when most drivers have no connection to criminal activity.
The audit records collected by Have I Been Flocked offer a view into a different part of the system — not merely what cameras record, but how authorized users search that information afterward.
Users can examine individual plate searches and, where the records are available, see the justification entered by the operator.
The website also organizes information by agency, allowing people to examine how Flock searches are being used within particular communities.
South Carolina Officer Accused of 166 Searches for Ex-Boyfriend
Concerns about access to license-plate databases have been heightened by cases involving alleged misuse.
One South Carolina police officer was fired after investigators determined that she had repeatedly searched for her former boyfriend’s license plate through Flock.
Documents from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy show that Hammond searched the plate of her ex-boyfriend on 166 separate occasions between March and July. The documents also indicate that she provided her superiors with false justifications for the searches. Officials said the excuses she gave included warrant checks, traffic infractions and welfare checks, none of which were legitimate reasons for the lookups.
Hammond joined the department in June 2024 and was assigned to its Uniform Patrol division. She was let go once the misconduct was discovered. Officials said she was not criminally charged in connection with the searches.
A spokesperson for the Mauldin Police Department declined to discuss the case further, describing it as “a personnel matter.”
The case illustrates why audit logs can be significant even when the underlying camera network is being used for legitimate law-enforcement purposes.
Each database query creates information that can potentially show who searched for a vehicle and the stated justification for doing so.
In Hammond’s case, investigators said the searches occurred 166 times between March and July and that reasons entered for the lookups included warrant checks, traffic violations and welfare checks.
Officials determined those justifications were not legitimate, according to the records.
Hammond was dismissed from the Mauldin Police Department after the conduct was discovered but was not criminally charged.
Database Does Not Establish Criminal Investigation
Have I Been Flocked emphasizes several distinctions that are important when interpreting its results.
A plate appearing in the database means an operator searched for that plate in records collected by the project, according to the site.
It does not establish why the vehicle originally came to the operator’s attention, whether the registered owner was suspected of wrongdoing or whether the search produced any investigative action.
Likewise, operators who have access to Flock are not necessarily sworn police officers.
The database also cannot provide a complete accounting of where a vehicle has traveled because it does not disclose every instance in which a Flock camera photographed a plate.
Instead, its focus is on the audit trail generated when users actively query Flock’s stored information.
That distinction gives the project a narrower but potentially revealing purpose: showing how government agencies and other system users are accessing a large repository of automatically collected vehicle data.
As additional agencies respond to public-records requests, organizers expect the database to evolve, but they caution that gaps will remain wherever governments withhold information or provide incomplete or heavily redacted records.
For drivers, the website provides a way to check whether their own license plate appears in the available audit logs.
For communities more broadly, its agency-level records provide another means of examining how rapidly expanding license-plate surveillance technology is being used by local authorities — and how often officials are searching the information those cameras collect.
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