The Sacramento Bee published a guide on August 31 for California drivers who want to know whether a government agency has searched for their license plate. The guide, by Alexiah Syrai Olsen of The Tribune, centers on a third-party website called Have I Been Flocked?
What are Flock cameras?
Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers made by Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company. They record vehicle sightings at a specific place and time, and capture plates and vehicle characteristics. Agencies and other users include law enforcement and fire departments, schools, residential communities, businesses and parks and recreation departments.
Flock Safety says the camera's owner controls the data, which is deleted after a week unless a law or an authorized investigation requires keeping it. According to Safe and Sound Security, Flock products can be leased for $2,500 to $35,000 a year, plus an installation fee of more than $250.
How do I check whether my plate was searched?
Have I Been Flocked? collects data from government agencies across the country and builds a catalog of plates that have been subject to record searches. It requests audit logs of Flock searches through Public Records Act requests, and adds information as police and transportation agencies release it.
To check, enter your license plate number. The site shows whether any agency record it holds matches your vehicle. You can also filter the records by agency, date, reason for the search, case number and state.
What do the report categories cover?
The site sorts records by keyword into categories. Examples include:
- First Amendment: words tied to protests, religious gatherings and political activity.
- Profiling: keywords such as race, ethnicity and gangs.
- Low-level offense: phrases for non-serious crimes, infractions and violations.
- Non-criminal: civil code enforcement, municipal ordinance violations, traffic studies and city planning.
- Develop probable cause and immigration reports.
Some records are testing and training reports.
Why does California get its own section?
The Sacramento Bee says California has stricter privacy laws for this data. The site says out-of-state agencies search California databases through Flock's network sharing feature, and that those searches "may bypass the state's legal protections." A separate section lists searches made by outside agencies in California.
California also has some of the highest numbers of plate readers per capita in the United States, according to a DeFlock map as of August 25.
What changes for drivers?
The guide does not describe a new law or a new rule. Have I Been Flocked? shows only records it has obtained, so a result shows what the site holds, not every search an agency has run. The Sacramento Bee does not say whether agencies notify drivers when a search is run.
To see cameras near you, use the camera map. For background on what the cameras capture, read how plate readers work.
What is still unknown?
- The Sacramento Bee does not say how many Flock cameras are in California.
- It does not say how many California records the site holds.
- It does not say how long the public records requests take to fill.
The site adds records as agencies release them, so a search can show new results later.