By admin 
Are surveillance cameras tracking your car?
California has some of the highest number of automatic license plate readers per capita in the United States as of Aug. 25, according to an interactive map from DeFlock, an organization that raises awareness about ALPR technology.
Read more Sacramento County man convicted of sexually abusing 2 girls could get life term
That includes Flock cameras manufactured by Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based surveillance engineering company.
This technology is used to track, log and store information about vehicles. Databases are controlled by users, who can grant search access to government agencies and private companies.
More than 100,000 Flock cameras have been installed around the country since 2017, when the company first started rolling out prototypes.
Check to see if a government agency is tracking your license plate:
What are Flock cameras?
Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers manufactured by Flock Safety that help “authorized users” “find information relevant to an incident,” the safety company said.
Agencies and other entities that use flock cameras include law enforcement and fire departments, as well as schools, residential communities, businesses and parks and recreation departments.
Flock cameras are used to:
- Record vehicle sightings at a specific place and time
- Capture license plates and vehicle characteristics
- Help authorized users find relevant vehicle evidence
- Provide leads for investigators to assess alongside other evidence
Data collected by Flock cameras are controlled by the cameras’ owner and automatically deleted after a week unless a law or authorized investigation requires information to be saved, according to Flock Safety.
“Flock does not contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Palantir,” a software company that partners with government and commercial clients.
According to Safe and Sound Security, Flock Safety products can be leased between $2,500 and $35,000 a year per product, with an installation fee of more than $250, depending on the product.
How can I tell if my car is being tracked?
Flock technology tracking website Have I Been Flocked? collects data from government agencies across the United States to create a catalog of license plates that have been subject to record searches.
Have I Been Flocked? requests audit logs of searches within the Flock system through Public Records Act requests and regularly updates the website to include information released from police departments, transportation agencies and other public entities.
Read more Kelsey Plum out for season; A’ja Wilson also out for Team USA
To search the Have I Been Flocked? database, enter your license plate number.
You’ll be able to see if your car, pickup truck or other vehicle is being tracked by any agency via records available to Have I Been Flocked?.
The data tracking website also offers ways to search automatic license plate reader records by agency, date, reason for log, case number and state.
Which reports are available to search?
Have I Been Flocked? organizes reports by keywords that are related to different categories.
First Amendment reports contain words relating to “First Amendment-protected activities such as protests, religious gatherings and political activities,” the surveillance technology tracking website said.
Race, ethnicity, gangs and other keywords that relate to profiling are grouped within the Profiling Report section and the Low-Level Offense Report category includes phrases for non-serious crimes, infractions and violations.
Have I Been Flocked? adds records related to civil code enforcement, municipal ordinance violations, traffic studies and city planning into its Non-Criminal Report section. Records can also include testing and training reports.
California has stricter privacy laws around this data.
“Out-of-state agencies query California (automatic license plate reader) databases through Flock’s network sharing feature,” the Flock technology tracking website. “Those searches may bypass the state’s legal protections.”
The California Out-of-State Queries report section on Have I Been Flocked? locates reports made from outside agencies searching in California.
Other logging categories are Develop Probable Cause reports and immigration reports.
Read more Bar raised for Wake Forest as Akron arrives with QB wild card