How long does Flock keep license plate data?

3 min readGuide

Flock Safety's default is now to delete plate reads after 7 days, but each police agency can set a longer or shorter period within state law, and 339 of the 350 Flock transparency portals that listed a period in 2023 and 2024 said 30 days.

Flock's default: 7 days

Flock Safety's LPR policy, updated June 30, 2026, says plate data is “hard deleted on a rolling 7-day basis by default,” and that the period may be raised or lowered when a customer's law or policy requires it.

Flock announced the cut from 30 days to 7 on August 13, 2026. Existing customers keep their current retention period unless they choose the new 7-day setting, so an agency that signed up years ago may still keep reads for 30 days. Flock also added Evidence Mode, which lets investigators preserve specific data for an active case.

What agencies published

The FlockDetour agency directory holds 365 Flock transparency portals collected by The News & Observer between July 2023 and April 2024. Of the 350 portals that listed a retention period, 339 said 30 days. Nine said 365 days, seven of them in California. One said 60 days and one said 15.

Those are the figures each portal showed when it was collected. Retention can change with a contract renewal or a new state law, so check your agency's live portal for its current number.

Look up your agency

State laws that set a limit

Virginia requires plate reader data to be purged after 21 days, under HB 2724, in effect since July 1, 2025. The law says the data must be destroyed so that neither the vendor nor the police agency can recover it.

New Hampshire is the strictest. Its law requires reads to be purged within 3 minutes of capture unless they lead to an arrest, a citation or protective custody, or identify a vehicle tied to a serious crime. NHPR reported in September 2026 that the rule keeps Flock's standard retention from operating in the state.

Where a state sets no limit, the agency's own policy and its contract with Flock decide how long reads are kept.

When reads are kept longer

A plate read tied to an investigation can be kept past the normal period, through Flock's Evidence Mode or exceptions like New Hampshire's for arrests and citations. Search records are separate from plate reads. Flock's policy says every query is logged with the user and the stated purpose, and those audit logs are what public records requests usually go after.

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Questions people ask

Does Flock delete data after 30 days?
30 days was Flock Safety's old default. Flock cut its default to 7 days on August 13, 2026, but existing customers keep their current period unless they opt in, and in a 2023 to 2024 snapshot 339 of 350 Flock transparency portals that listed a period said 30 days.
How long does my town keep Flock data?
Check your police department's Flock transparency portal, which lists its retention period, or look up the agency in the FlockDetour agency directory. For the rule in writing, request the agency's ALPR policy and its contract with Flock through a public records request.
Can police keep Flock data longer than the retention period?
Yes, when a read is tied to an investigation. Flock's Evidence Mode lets investigators preserve specific data for an active case, and state laws such as New Hampshire's keep reads that led to an arrest or citation.
Does Flock keep a copy after the retention period ends?
Flock Safety's LPR policy calls the deletion a hard delete on a rolling schedule. Virginia's law goes further in writing and requires the data to be destroyed so neither the vendor nor the agency can recover it.

Related guides

What are Flock cameras, and how do they work? · How to request your city's Flock audit logs · Is it legal to avoid Flock cameras? · All guides · Live camera map · Get the app

Sources

FlockDetour is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Flock Safety or any surveillance vendor.