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Who can search the records depends on the local customer’s settings. Agencies create accounts, assign role-based permissions, decide whether to share data, and can review search logs. A specific town, neighborhood, or business may therefore operate under terms that differ from the general Flock baseline.
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What a Flock ALPR camera records
Flock Safety’s ALPR system is designed to associate a passing vehicle with a plate image and a small set of contextual fields. Flock’s Data Privacy & Protection Trust Center lists four categories:
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| Recorded field | What it represents |
|---|---|
| License-plate image | A camera image of the vehicle’s license plate |
| Vehicle characteristics | Descriptors associated with the vehicle captured by the system |
| Date and time stamp | When the vehicle was observed |
| Camera-location identifier | Which Flock camera made the observation |
These categories describe the ALPR product, not every Flock device. Flock also sells video cameras, gunshot-detection sensors, real-time crime-center software, and drones used as first responders. Those products can collect different information, so the ALPR list should not be applied automatically to an entire Flock deployment.
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What Flock says ALPR does not collect
Flock says its ALPR product does not collect biometric data, driver information, or facial-recognition data. This is a statement of the company’s product policy and description; it is not an independent audit of every installation or image. If a local agency combines ALPR with other cameras, databases, or investigative tools, the overall information available to that agency may be broader than the four ALPR fields listed above.
How long Flock data is kept
Flock’s current Trust Center says images and footage are automatically deleted after a set period and that seven days is the period used in most communities unless local law requires otherwise. Flock’s evidence policy describes seven days as the cloud LPR hard-deletion default for law-enforcement customers, subject to local law and an individual customer agreement.
The seven-day rule is not universal
Flock’s August 2026 customer update makes an important distinction: “The seven-day default is specific to new law enforcement customers.” Existing private-sector customers continue under the retention terms established for their accounts. A private neighborhood, apartment complex, business, or other non-government customer may therefore have a different period even when it uses the same camera hardware.
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|---|---|
| New law-enforcement customer | Seven-day default, unless local law or an approved arrangement sets a different period |
| Existing private-sector customer | Existing account terms continue; the seven-day law-enforcement default does not automatically replace them |
| Any customer with a legal requirement | Longer storage may apply when required by law |
| Law-enforcement customer seeking a voluntary extension | Flock’s evidence policy says an agency may request up to one year when an elected official and/or governing body approves the extension |
The exact setting for a particular camera cannot be inferred from Flock’s general website. The controlling documents are the customer’s contract, local policy, account configuration, and any applicable statute or court requirement.
Why older references say 30 days
Older 30-day descriptions can be accurate for the date and deployment they describe without being the current universal rule. The Associated Press reported on August 13, 2026, that Flock announced a reduction of standard retention from 30 days to seven days, while allowing longer preservation for evidence tied to a case number. Separately, an April 22, 2024 Federal Register notice described a 30-day term for the Presidio Trust’s particular ALPR implementation at that time. That federal notice applies to that named deployment and date; it does not establish Flock’s current policy for every customer.
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Deletion is different from evidence preservation
Under Flock’s evidence policy, cloud LPR data is hard-deleted after the applicable retention period. A record connected to an investigation can be handled differently. Flock’s policy discusses preserving case-related evidence for longer periods, including the possibility of a case-number-linked record remaining available after routine data would otherwise expire.
Legal process can also affect the timeline. Flock says it may receive requests for customer data and will notify the customer when it receives such a request unless legally prohibited. Its general privacy policy says the company may access, preserve, or disclose personal information to law-enforcement agencies, government officials, or other parties when legally required or when it reasonably believes disclosure is necessary for specified purposes. Those are policy statements, not a promise that every customer or individual will receive notice in every circumstance.
Who can access Flock camera records
Local agencies control ordinary account access
Flock says customer agencies manage accounts, assign permissions based on role, and choose sharing settings. A person’s ability to search is therefore determined by the local customer’s approved user list and configuration, not simply by the fact that a camera is installed in public view.
Flock also says searches are linked to a user and logged. An agency can review those logs to determine which account performed a search. Whether a particular department regularly reviews its logs, how long it keeps audit records, and what disciplinary rules apply are local governance questions that Flock’s general pages do not answer.
Sharing with another agency
Flock’s general materials do not establish that every deployment has sharing enabled. A police department in another town may be able to search a camera network only if the customer’s sharing settings and agreements permit it. The existence of a Flock camera in one jurisdiction does not, by itself, prove that every nearby agency can query it.
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Private customers and law enforcement
Flock says private-sector customers may choose whether to share camera data with law-enforcement agencies that have an agreement with Flock. That means a private neighborhood or business can have a sharing arrangement, but it is not automatic. To know whether sharing is enabled, identify the private customer, obtain its policy or agreement, and ask which agencies are authorized.
How to find the rules for a camera in your town
Flock’s company-wide descriptions cannot answer every local question. Use the following process to obtain the records that control a specific installation.
- Identify the customer. Determine whether the camera is owned or administered by a police department, sheriff’s office, city agency, neighborhood association, apartment operator, or business.
- Request the written policy. Ask for the current ALPR or LPR policy, including the retention period, deletion schedule, permitted search purposes, and rules for case-related preservation.
- Request the contract and amendments. The agreement may show a retention term, extension approval, renewal date, data ownership language, and any special sharing provisions.
- Ask for sharing records. Request memoranda of understanding, interagency agreements, or account settings showing which outside agencies may search or receive data.
- Ask who is authorized. Seek the role categories or approved-user list, rather than assuming every officer, employee, contractor, or neighboring agency has access.
- Ask about auditing. Find out whether searches are logged, who reviews the logs, how long audit records are retained, and what happens after an improper search.
- Check the date. Policies and vendor defaults changed in 2026, and older federal notices may describe a deployment that no longer uses the same term.
Public-records laws, agency websites, city-council packets, procurement files, and records-request procedures may provide these documents. A local agency can give a more reliable answer than a national product page because it controls the account-specific settings.
Three situations that produce different answers
| Situation | What the available policy information supports |
|---|---|
| New police-department installation | Start with the seven-day default, then check local law, the contract, and any approved extension |
| Private neighborhood installation | Do not assume seven days; the existing private-sector account terms control, and sharing with law enforcement is optional |
| Older federal or agency document | Read the publication date and named deployment; a 30-day term in a 2024 notice is historical and site-specific |
What the available information does not establish
- It does not identify the authorized users for any particular town or neighborhood.
- It does not prove that every Flock deployment enables sharing with outside agencies.
- It does not provide a universal retention period for private-sector customers.
- It does not independently audit whether every camera captures only the fields Flock lists.
- It does not show the audit results or search practices of a specific agency.
Those limits matter when evaluating a local camera program. “Flock keeps data for seven days” is a reasonable description of the current new-law-enforcement baseline, but it is too broad for every customer and every date. The defensible answer for a particular camera must include the customer type, the policy’s effective date, the retention setting, and the sharing and access rules.
Practical privacy questions to ask
When speaking with a local agency or private operator, ask precise questions rather than only asking whether it “has Flock.” Useful questions include:
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- What exact fields are stored with an ALPR observation?
- What is the routine retention period, and when does deletion occur?
- Can an official extend retention, and what approval is required?
- What event causes a record to be preserved as evidence?
- Which roles may search, and are searches tied to named accounts?
- Which outside agencies may search or receive records?
- How are search logs reviewed and retained?
- When data is requested legally, when is the customer notified?
Answers to these questions let residents distinguish the vendor’s stated controls from the rules actually adopted by their local customer.
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