License Plate Reader Manufacturer Flock Safety opens facility in Cobb County

Have you seen traffic cameras popping up all around? Chances are they are owned and operated by Flock Safety, a manufacturer of surveillance technology based right here in Cobb County.

Lisa Cupid and Brian Kemp Welcome the surveillance equipment manufacturer on April 2nd 2025

“In Georgia, we foster a business environment where innovative companies can get off the ground and grow into leaders in their industry while operating in safe communities,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “Flock Safety is a great example of the success that approach has created, and we’re proud to celebrate this milestone with them. We look forward to many years of partnership with Flock Safety in their efforts to help keep Georgians safe.” the Cobb government published.

But is Flock really keeping us safe?

License Plate Reader Company Flock Is Building a Massive People Lookup Tool, Leak Shows. While collecting data to train AI is a lucrative business, should it be intermingled with public safety? AI Cameras Took Over One Small American Town. Now They’re Everywhere. And they have been sued by The City of Norfolk, Virginia for

a network of cameras that make it 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.

The lawsuit continues

All of that surveillance creates a detailed record of where every driver in Norfolk has gone. Anyone with access to the database can go back in time and see where a car was on any given day. And they can track its movements across at least the past 30 days, creating a detailed map of the driver’s movements. Indeed, the City’s police chief has boasted that “it would be difficult to drive anywhere of any distance without running into a camera somewhere.” In Norfolk, no one can escape the government’s 172 unblinking eyes. And the City’s dragnet is only expanding: On September 24, 2024, the Chief of Police announced plans to acquire 65 more cameras in the future.

Over 300 law enforcement agencies and 100 businesses in Georgia have deployed Flock Safety’s technology

The Cobb County Government reported:

“We are thrilled to welcome Flock Safety to Cobb County,” said Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, Cobb County Board of Commissioners. “We have been early partners with Flock Safety by deploying their public safety technology, and I am happy to see this relationship evolve in our community, with its ready workforce and a business environment supportive of their commitment to innovation in public safety technology. We are certain the dynamic energy of Cobb’s business climate and quality of life for residents will add to Flock Safety’s success.”

How much information does Flock really collect about you?

Jeff Schwaner drove 300 miles in rural Virginia, then asked police to send (him) their public surveillance footage of (his) car.

As Cardinal Executive Director Luanne Rife points out in her column on Sunshine Week, public agencies don’t have to agree with why you’re asking for their public information. The idea is that it belongs to you already. They are under legal obligation to provide it to you.

He continues

Public-facing LRP cameras like Flock’s capture vast amounts of data unrelated to any criminal activity. And there’s zero oversight outside of the law enforcement community. This goes back to the idea that footage taken of me in public, non-investigative in nature, can be considered investigative and not subject to a public information request, and concerns me.

The Roanoke Circuit Court finally stepped in to order the approval of his FOIA request.

“Any citizen could duplicate this request for their own vehicle to get a custom version of where and how they are being captured by this public-facing tech,” said Schwaner. “Since such a search takes about 10 seconds by the city’s own admission, and in a world where suddenly we’re accepting such a high level of non-investigative blanket surveillance and trusting our police not to abuse their ownership of that data, it’s not an unreasonable request.”

But the surveillance Doesn’t stop there.

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows. The data referred to is the search history for Flock’s system. Its all here. While the FOIA report does not display the search results, it does show who they are searching for, the reason, and the time frame for the location of the subject. As shown in the example below.

Milledgeville PD performs an “investgiation” [sic] on a suspect using Flock Security’s tracking system.

Let’s dive in.

🔍 Date range of all searches released in the FOIA request:
📅 Start: 2025-03-01 06:13:09
📅 End: 2025-03-16 04:57:06

That’s 22,356 people searches in two weeks.

22,356 location searches performed on citizens using Flock’s system by
Law Enforcement in Ga. over a two week period. May 1-15 2025.

Reasons listed for performing citizen location searches by Law Enforcement in Ga.

As we can see, Cobb County dominates for searches on its citizens. With ~4000 location searches in two weeks, it breaks down to ~275 searches per day for the whereabouts of citizens tracked and mapped through Flock Safety’s ai powered surveillance system.

Editor’s Thoughts

I am rushing this article out because it is vital for our community to understand what is happening around them. I will update it as I refine the information.

Sources used in this article: