ATLANTA - Don't want your car passing a Flock camera? There are now websites designed to help you avoid them.
What we know:
As automated license plate readers become more common, people concerned about privacy are finding new ways to determine where the cameras are located and whether they can get around them.
Some are using crowdsourced maps. Others are checking public records to find out whether police have searched for their vehicles. And some drivers are experimenting with ways to make their vehicles harder for the technology to identify.
The growing effort to avoid Flock cameras comes as the technology faces scrutiny over how much information is being collected, who has access to it and what happens when someone misuses it.
Websites map routes around Flock cameras
Two open-source projects, FlockHopper and DeFlock, allow users to report Flock camera locations.
FlockHopper goes a step further. Drivers can enter where they are starting and where they want to go. The site shows reported cameras along the way and can generate an alternative route intended to avoid them.
Another website, Have I Been Flocked, uses publicly obtained police audit logs to help people determine whether their license plates have been searched.
Because the information comes from public records requests, the database may be incomplete or outdated.
Why are people trying to avoid the cameras?
What they're saying:
For many critics, the issue is not whether a camera photographs a vehicle once. It is what can happen when information from large numbers of cameras becomes searchable.
A license plate can provide a record of when and where a vehicle passed a particular camera. Critics worry that collecting enough of those records could reveal patterns about where someone travels.
Those concerns have intensified following allegations that law enforcement officers used Flock systems for personal reasons, including to track current or former romantic partners.
Flock says searches by law enforcement are restricted, logged and subject to review. Its current policies say searches must be connected to an investigative purpose and that agencies control access to their data.
What does a Flock camera actually do?
Dig deeper:
Flock Safety is a company. A license plate reader is a type of technology.
That distinction can get lost because Flock has become one of the best-known companies selling automated license plate readers, also known as ALPRs or LPRs.
A Flock LPR photographs vehicles and turns what it sees into searchable information. That can include a license plate number, the plate's state, vehicle characteristics, time and camera location.
Unlike a traditional security camera that primarily records video for someone to review later, an LPR is designed to make vehicle information searchable.
Flock also sells other products, including traditional video cameras. So, while many roadside Flock devices are license plate readers, Flock camera does not always mean license plate reader.
It's not just police watching for vehicles
Flock's customer base extends well beyond law enforcement.
The company markets its license plate readers to businesses, schools, neighborhoods, apartment communities and HOAs. Flock says more than 1,000 businesses and 6,000 communities use its LPR products, in addition to more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies.
For example, an HOA can place cameras at neighborhood entrances. A business can use them to identify vehicles entering its property.
Private customers can also decide whether to share information with law enforcement. Flock says customers own the data collected by their systems and control who can access it.
That means avoiding cameras owned by a city or police department does not necessarily mean avoiding the larger Flock network.
Flock cameras by the numbers
By the numbers:
Flock Safety says its technology supported more than 1 million criminal investigations and incidents in 2025.
According to the company's 2025 Impact Census, Flock technology assisted in about 20% of solved cases in jurisdictions using the system and helped law enforcement locate more than 10,000 missing people. About 42% of surveyed customers said Flock was involved in recovering at least half of the stolen vehicles in their jurisdictions.
Some people are trying other methods
The other side:
Online discussions about avoiding license plate readers have moved beyond maps.
People have discussed reflective or tinted plate covers and other methods intended to make plates more difficult for cameras to read. Researchers have also experimented with vehicle designs intended to confuse automated identification systems.
Those approaches raise a separate legal issue.
Georgia law requires license plates to be clearly displayed. Drivers can face consequences for using equipment or materials that obstruct a plate or make it difficult to read.
Simply taking a different road to avoid a camera is one thing. Illegally obscuring a license plate is another.
Cameras themselves are also being targeted
What people are doing:
The backlash has sometimes gone further than avoidance.
Flock cameras around the country have been spray-painted, obstructed, knocked down or otherwise damaged.
Map: Flock cameras targeted by vandals across US
Georgia has seen its own cases.
The Barrow County Sheriff's Office reported multiple damaged Flock cameras in July and warned that intentionally destroying the equipment could lead to criminal charges, fines and restitution.
Most recently, the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office offered a $1,000 reward after a Flock camera near Yahoola Creek Park was destroyed. Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said the department intends to replace it.
RELATED: Flock camera damaged in Lumpkin County, sheriff reacts
Damaging a camera is very different legally from choosing not to drive past one. Depending on the circumstances and value of the damage, vandalizing government or privately owned equipment can result in criminal charges and a requirement to pay for the damage.
What's next:
The debate over Flock cameras is unlikely to disappear as the network grows. Police and private customers say the technology provides valuable evidence when crimes occur. Critics question whether the benefits justify creating a searchable record of where vehicles have been.
Increasingly, some drivers aren't waiting for that debate to be settled. They're simply looking for another route.