The Berkeley Police Department (BPD) has had a contract with Flock for automatic license plate readers for several years. In September 2025, BPD proposed a Drone as First Responder program that would expand cameras to additional public places and on drones. However, UC Berkeley's Criminal Law and Justice Center conducted an independent review and did not find evidence that such technology and tactics have helped police departments solve crime at a higher rate.

On the other hand, the ACLU has reported that Flock data is being used by ICE while the EFF has reported that Flock enables surveillance of protesters. Additionally, there's been numerous instances where law enforcement agencies external to a jurisdictions gained access to local data without permission through Flock's system.

Flock markets itself as a public safety company, but in reality it operates as a private data broker. Their business model is simple - get police departments to pay for their equipment to monitor everyone like criminals, then monetize OUR data by selling paywall access to other jurisdictions. Worse still, their unregulated private surveillance network is so poorly secured that independent researchers have demonstrated it can be compromised in minutes.

We should not risk the privacy, civil liberties, and safety of our community members when there's insufficient evidence that these new shiny tools are not yet effective at solving more crime but the slippery slope is already happening.

The Berkeley City Council will take a vote on BPD's proposal during the 3/24/26 meeting. Send a letter now to tell your council member that you oppose the contract expansion as it is not aligned with Berkeley's values.

For more information, head to the Indivisible Berkeley webpage.