Have I Been Flocked? How to search your license plate

Key Points:

• A new website, Have I Been Flocked?, allows drivers to check if their license plates appear in publicly released records of searches conducted through Flock Safety’s surveillance system, which has compiled nearly 242 million searches involving over 4.6 million plates as of August 17.
• The site provides details such as when a plate was searched, the agency and operator involved, and the stated reason for the search, though information may be incomplete or redacted, and a search does not necessarily indicate suspicion or investigation.
• Flock Safety’s technology is used not only by law enforcement but also by private entities like businesses and homeowners associations, raising privacy concerns amid reports of misuse by officers and use by local agencies on behalf of federal authorities, including immigration enforcement.
• The database is incomplete due to reliance on public records requests and transparency portals, meaning an absence of a search result does not guarantee a plate has never been searched; operator names are often partially redacted, complicating identification.
• Have I Been Flocked? encourages individuals concerned about searches to file public records requests or consult attorneys and offers additional tools to explore surveillance data by agency and purpose, increasing transparency around Flock’s surveillance network.