Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they're spreading fast Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they're spreading fast You can't get a breath of fresh air ... without us knowing. Thanks to the rise of AI, a new kind of surveillance camera has rapidly proliferated across the United States. Typically referred to as automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, they're most often mounted along roadways, where they log the movements of cars which pass through their field of vision. Though various companies offer them, the most well known come from Flock Security, and the company has consequently been a lightning rod for public opinion. Shocking exactly nobody, there has been widespread public backlash to cameras that track everyone, whether or not they've been suspected of a crime.

A Colorado woman who spoke with Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson was wrongly accused of theft after police relied on surveillance technology that misidentified her vehicle.

In the past five months, Flock Safety cameras have allowed Yakima-area law enforcement officers to arrest an accused kidnapper and child molester, identify a fatal hit-and-run suspect and recover a record number of stolen vehicles. "It's one officer that never sleeps," Yakima Police Capt. "Most of our criminals move throughout the area in a vehicle and this will limit that ability." Flock cameras have helped police recover 37 stolen vehicles, arrest 28 violent persons, serve 19 warrants and locate 16 missing persons -- just in the last month. According to the Yakima Police Department's transparency portal, they have 33 automated license plate recognition cameras placed across the city -- all enabled with artificial intelligence that's helping agencies across the county solve crimes.