A division of ICE, the Secret Service, and the Navy’s criminal investigation division all had access to Flock’s nationwide network of tens of thousands of AI-enabled cameras that constantly track the movements of vehicles, and by extension people, according to a letter sent by Senator Ron Wyden and shared with 404 Media. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the section of ICE that had access and which has reassigned more than ten thousand employees to work on the agency’s mass deportation campaign, performed nearly two hundred searches in the system, the letter says.
In the letter Senator Wyden says he believes Flock is uninterested in fixing the room for abuse baked into its platform, and says local officials can best protect their constituents from such abuses by removing the cameras entirely.
The letter shows that many more federal agencies had access to the network than previously known. We previously found, following local media reports, that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had access to 80,000 cameras around the country. It is now clear that Flock’s work with federal agencies, which the company described as a pilot, was much larger in scope.
“I now believe that abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable, and that Flock is unable and uninterested in preventing them,” Senator Wyden’s letter, addressed to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, reads. “Cities around the country, including in Oregon, are currently reevaluating their decision to install Flock cameras. I commend and support this reexamination. In my view, local elected officials can best protect their constituents from the inevitable abuses of Flock cameras by removing Flock from their communities.”
Flock’s cameras continuously scan the license plate, model, brand, color, and other identifying characteristics of all vehicles that pass them. Some Flock cameras are also capable of tracking people more directly. A recently launched feature, called FreeForm, lets customers enter natural language searches such as “camo hat, forest green sweater” to bring up video with a person matching that description.
Individual police departments then enable Flock’s national lookup tool in their settings, which lets agencies from other states even on the other side of the country search cameras for specific vehicles. Police can only perform nationwide searches if they also provide access to their own data. Flock said in August 75 percent of its law enforcement customers were enrolled in the national lookup tool, according to Wyden’s letter.
Multiple federal agencies in turn had access to this national lookup tool, according to Senator Wyden’s letter. Flock officials “confirmed to my office in September that the company provided access to CBP, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service [NCIS] as part of a pilot earlier this year,” it reads.
CBP performed around 200 searches, and HSI performed around 175, according to the letter.
Ordinarily, HSI is focused specifically on criminal cases, such as child abuse, human trafficking, or cybercrime. But the distinction between HSI and its umbrella agency ICE is largely meaningless in the second Trump administration. HSI has reassigned at least 6,198 agents, or nearly 90 percent, to assist targeted operations with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the part of ICE that handles immigration enforcement, according to internal ICE data published by the Cato Institute in September. Cato subsequently obtained more data showing the number of diverted HSI employees is even higher. Including both agents and non-agents, 12,353 HSI personnel are supporting ERO, according to Cato. HSI also performs worksite enforcement, which has been a major focus of this administration.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment. A Secret Service spokesperson told 404 Media in an email “The U.S. Secret Service does not comment on what platforms and systems we use to conduct our protective and investigative operations.” An NCIS spokesperson said “NCIS has previously evaluated the Flock software but does not currently maintain access to the system. Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further on databases and specialized software used by the agency.”
Flock did not respond to a request for comment.
Law enforcement officials typically perform searches in Flock without a warrant or court order. An ongoing lawsuit, filed by civil liberties organization the Institute for Justice, argues that warrantless use of Flock cameras is unconstitutional, saying “It is functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored in an AI-assisted database that enables the warrantless surveillance of their every move. This civil rights lawsuit seeks to end this dragnet surveillance program.”
Reacting to the news of more federal agencies having had access to Flock, Michael B. Soyfer, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, told 404 Media “Once again, this highlights the problem with allowing police departments across the country to install dragnet surveillance systems with minimal oversight of how they’re used.”
“The only way to guarantee that the massive troves of data these systems generate won’t be abused is to enforce the Fourth Amendment and require police to get a warrant before they can track people. Otherwise, there will continue to be a steady drip of stories showing these systems are being used and accessed in ways that local communities don’t want or expect,” he added.
In May, 404 Media revealed that local cops were performing Flock lookups for ICE. Network audits obtained through public records requests, which show the reason a law enforcement officer gave for conducting a search, sometimes explicitly said “immigration.” 404 Media also revealed a law enforcement officer in Texas searched cameras nationwide for a woman who self-administered an abortion. This month documents shared by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) with 404 Media showed authorities considering charging the woman with a crime.
Jason Koebler
Since 404 Media first reported those cases, there has been a wave of local media coverage and actions taken by individual communities about their use of Flock, including suspending or stopping their use of the cameras. Flock also made changes to its product, including removing multiple states from its national lookup tool. After meeting with Wyden staff, Flock also agreed to apply software filters to data collected by cameras in Oregon, the letter says. Eugene, Oregon, officially paused its use of Flock cameras on Tuesday.
“While the search reasons collected by Flock, obtained by press and activists through open records requests, have occasionally revealed searches for immigration and abortion enforcement, these are likely just the tip of the iceberg,” the letter adds. “Presumably, most officers using Flock to hunt down immigrants and women who have received abortions are not going to type that in as the reason for their search. And, regardless, given that Flock has washed its hands of any obligation to audit its customers, Flock customers have no reason to trust a search reason provided by another agency.” The letter says that a dataset of 11.4 million nationwide Flock searches over six months, provided by the EFF, shows that more than 14 percent of the search reasons contained just the word “investigation” and no case number.
The letter added “Abuse of Flock cameras is inevitable, and Flock has made it clear it takes no responsibility to prevent or detect that. For that reason, I must now recommend that communities that have installed Flock cameras reevaluate that decision.”