Flock Cameras in Pennsylvania: Public Safety or Mass Surveillance?

Automated license plate readers (ALPRs), including Flock cameras, are rapidly expanding across Pennsylvania. While technology can help police investigate serious crimes, public safety cannot come at the expense of everyone’s right to privacy.

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 933, backed by Senators Joe Picozzi, Frank Farry, and Tracy Pennycuick, would make it easier to install ALPRs on state roads. The problem is that the bill does not provide adequate safeguards governing who can access location data, how long it can be retained, or with whom it can be shared.

That is unacceptable.

These systems can create detailed records of where people drive—even when they have done nothing wrong. And recent events demonstrate why strong oversight is essential. At least 19 law-enforcement employees in five states were recently arrested, fired, placed on leave, or investigated for potentially improper use of Flock data. They weren't caught by their police departments. They were identified by USA TODAY reporters.

Police departments should not be allowed to police themselves.

State Rep. Tarik Khan has proposed a better approach: establish clear limits on access and data retention, require transparency, penalize misuse, and give the Attorney General and local district attorneys authority to investigate violations.

Pennsylvania needs guardrails before expanding surveillance—not after.

Flock isn't the only company collecting this information. The principle is bigger than any one vendor: government surveillance must be transparent, limited, accountable, and subject to meaningful public oversight.

Protecting public safety should never require surrendering our privacy.