Local concerns are in concert with national issues over Flock cameras. These license plate readers blanket Culver City with a surveillance network that has been lauded by the police as being a modern tool to assist in arresting suspects, and decried by much of the residents as an over-reaching information grab.
Our Culver, a local non-profit group, will be hosting a panel discussion at the Wende Museum on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, beginning at 6 pm. The conversation will led by Stephen Jones of Our Culver, and include Culver City’s Vice Mayor Bubba Fish, and Rosalind Jones who covers surveillance issues for KnockLA.
The cameras are mounted at traffic intersections throughout the city; there is no way to drive through Culver City without your vehicle’s information getting into the system. Culver City’s 52 Flock automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras log the plate of every car that passes them, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 2023, The Culver City Council approved the Flock contract on a 3–2 vote: a five-year agreement, costing the city $668,200.
In July 2025, after ICE raids began in the Los Angeles region, Council voted to suspend sharing Flock data with outside agencies and require regular reports from CCPD. Now the contract itself is back on the table.
Flock’s nationwide network has been accessed by immigration enforcement. Across the country, there are documented cases of officers misusing Flock to track people for personal reasons.
It’s not just the surveillance, it’s the ethics of the company’s administration. According to the ACLU, Oskosh, Wisconsin instantly cancelled a contract after learning it had been lied to by Flock.
“…one city council member asked Flock if the company’s ALPR system created heat maps that could reveal where a particular vehicle had driven over a period of time. Flock’s chief information security officer, who was in attendance, stated that Flock’s system did not create a pattern or heat map of an individual’s movement through the tracking of their vehicles.
At the end of that meeting, the Oshkosh City Council approved a contract with Flock.
The very next morning, the city learned that Flock had lied. Later that day, the city council reconvened to discuss what it had learned. Confronting Flock, Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Joe Stephenson said “I don’t know how this body can govern if someone tells untruths, mistruths, exaggerated truths. I don’t know how I can make a decision or discern what’s right or what’s wrong, or even the capabilities of this system if you lie to me.”
The state of Florida was the first in the nation to ban Flock cameras in September of this year.
According to tech newsletter BGR, “Flock Cameras have been shown to track more than just license plates. They log vehicle colors, details and other distinguishing features to create an individual signature or profile. Moreover, the company is alleged to have made false statements about its technology’s capabilities, and executives have been less than truthful about how those systems are used.”
To attend, please rsvp to bit.ly/ourculverflocktownhall
Judith Martin-Straw
