July 13, 2026
License to Chill? Not So Fast
LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire
LAPD dumps plate-tracking deal, but commenters say the creepy cameras may stay
TLDR: LAPD is ending its deal with Flock Safety over privacy worries, a major setback for one of the biggest car-tracking camera companies in the country. But commenters say don’t celebrate yet: the cameras may remain, and the bigger fight over surveillance, mistakes, and police overreach is far from over.
Los Angeles police are letting their deal with Flock Safety run out after raising serious privacy and civil rights concerns over the company’s license-plate tracking cameras. On paper, that sounds like a big win for critics of mass surveillance. In the comments, though, the mood was less victory lap and more "nice try, but the story isn’t over". The biggest reaction? A lot of people pointed out that Flock, not the city, owns many of the cameras — meaning the devices could still be sitting there, watching cars, even after the contract ends. That led to one of the thread’s most darkly funny images: communities so frustrated they allegedly had to cover cameras with trash bags because they couldn’t legally take them down.
The hot takes got spicier from there. One commenter basically asked the bleak question hanging over the whole debate: what’s the point of more tracking if police already know the repeat offenders and still don’t stop crimes? Another wanted the unicorn version of this tech — a privacy-first camera system controlled locally and used only for local policing — which feels a bit like asking for a diet deep-fried Oreo. And then came the conspiracy-adjacent hardware sleuthing, with one commenter warning that if Flock goes away, another surveillance setup could slide in with its own hidden strings attached.
So yes, LAPD stepping back is real news. But the comment section’s verdict was pure side-eye: the contract may be dead, yet the surveillance drama is very much alive.
Key Points
- •The LAPD is allowing its three-year contract with Flock Safety to expire, citing concerns about civil liberties, privacy, data security, and data sharing.
- •LAPD chief information officer Dean Gialamas said the department stopped using Flock services until those issues can be addressed contractually.
- •Flock said the contract expiration was a surprise and stated it believed it could resolve the misconceptions behind the decision.
- •The article says Flock operates at least 80,000 license plate cameras across the United States and that LAPD has been one of its largest government customers.
- •The article links Flock to broader controversy, including privacy complaints, reported false-positive incidents from license plate readers, and security lapses that exposed camera feeds and access practices.