Alpharetta, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, has become a notable hub in the expansive network of Flock Safety’s surveillance system, sharing license plate data captured from its roughly several dozen Flock cameras with more than 2,000 law enforcement and government agencies across the United States. This revelation, uncovered through public records requests and reported by WIRED, exposes the breadth of data exchanges facilitated by the private surveillance company and illustrates growing concerns about transparency and oversight.
What Happened
The Alpharetta Police Department operates about 120 officers serving nearly 67,000 residents and utilizes Flock Safety’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to capture license plates and other vehicle-related data. This data is not only accessible internally but is also shared with an extensive network of over 2,000 agencies, ranging from federal bodies to local organizations, including colleges, airports, and specialized units such as Medicare fraud investigators and drug task forces. In return, Alpharetta receives Flock data from more than 1,300 entities nationwide.
Data sharing between agencies has notably increased over the past year: since June 2025, the number of agencies receiving Alpharetta’s Flock data grew by approximately 42%, while the number of agencies sending data to Alpharetta surged by 125%. The interconnected nature of this system means that Alpharetta engages with other law enforcement agencies that have faced internal controversies involving misuse of Flock technology.
Key Facts
Flock Safety’s network allows police departments to set data sharing parameters. Alpharetta’s police reportedly “automatically approve” data requests within a 500-mile radius, although the department only shares recorded data, not live video or analytics. The tool known as Nationwide lookup, introduced in 2021, enables customers to query other customers’ data across state lines, provided they have the license plate specifics. However, some agencies had this feature enabled unbeknownst to them, resulting in broader data queries than anticipated.
Instances in other jurisdictions, such as Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and Palo Alto, California, revealed accidental exposure to nationwide data searches due to default or previously set configurations that were not fully understood or consented to by local authorities. Flock spokespersons stated that data sharing is now turned off by default for new customers and that earlier widespread defaults facilitated the expansion of these networks.
The Alpharetta system is part of a private company’s managed network, differing from traditional publicly funded data-sharing arrangements like fusion centers or HIDTA programs. This private oversight structure varies significantly by jurisdiction and can result in users becoming, sometimes unknowingly, nodes in large surveillance ecosystems.
What This Means
The extensive data sharing by Alpharetta’s police highlights a broader trend of surveillance privatization that complicates accountability and public understanding of law enforcement’s reach. With thousands of agencies accessing vehicle location and movement data, there is a heightened risk of misuse, unauthorized access, or surveillance creep beyond original investigative purposes. The decentralized control over settings means that officers may have wide-ranging access to data beyond their immediate jurisdiction, often without clear safeguards.
For ordinary residents and visitors, this means their movements captured in one city can be instantly accessible to numerous agencies nationwide, raising questions about privacy and the scope of governmental surveillance. Transparency issues arise when law enforcement agencies either do not fully comprehend or disclose the extent of their data-sharing practices. This dynamic underscores the challenges regulators and communities face in balancing public safety needs with civil liberties in an era of widespread data collection.
As private companies like Flock operate these surveillance infrastructures, their policies and default settings wield significant influence over who has access to sensitive data, urging a reevaluation of oversight mechanisms, standard operating procedures, and data governance standards.
Background
Flock Safety markets its ALPR network primarily to law enforcement agencies as a tool to track and apprehend criminals crossing jurisdictional boundaries. The technology’s rise has sparked controversy, including recent incidents where officers were disciplined for misuse of the data. Alpharetta itself experienced a resignation of a police officer following an investigation of Flock data misuse in August 2026.
The Nationwide lookup tool, introduced in 2021, has been a particular focus, allowing customers to perform cross-jurisdictional searches beyond local or state limits. After backlash, especially regarding federal agency access, Flock disabled nationwide access for federal customers and has since tightened controls, but legacy settings in local agencies have created unintended consequences.
What Remains Unclear
Details such as how many residents or vehicle owners’ data have been accessed without their knowledge or consent remain unconfirmed. It is unclear how many agencies have actively adjusted their data-sharing settings following the discovery of automatic or default nationwide access. Additionally, there is no confirmation about comprehensive audit measures or notifications to the public regarding these expansive surveillance practices.
What Comes Next
Flock has stated that it now disables data-sharing by default for new customers and has implemented stronger controls to limit accidental broad access. Several police agencies, as seen in the cases of Reynoldsburg and Beltrami County, have revised their data-sharing protocols to restrict access geographically and by agency type. Ongoing scrutiny and calls for transparency suggest potential regulatory attention and changes in how private surveillance companies handle interagency data exchanges.
Sources
This article is based on reporting and publicly available information from the following sources:
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