What the Flock is going on?
Staff writer
A Flock Safety automatic license plate reader is operating near Marion, but it’s unclear who owns or operates the camera.
It’s located just west of the US-56/77/K-150 roundabout, according to a crowd-sourced database that maps automatic license plate readers, including Flock cameras.
The database also lists a Flock camera near Tabor College in Hillsboro.
Marion County and the City of Hillsboro both said in response to separate open-records requests that they had never entered into a contract or agreement with Flock Safety.
The Record also requested records from Tabor College regarding a possible contract with Flock Safety. Tabor declined to fulfill the request, saying it’s not a public agency and therefore is exempt from providing records.
However, Adam Suderman, a communications specialist at Tabor, said there were no Flock cameras on the college’s campus.
Kansas Highway Patrol confirmed that it uses Flock cameras, but it did not identify the Marion-area camera as one in its systems as of Tuesday.
The agency denied a records request, citing a state law that exempts records containing captured license plate data or information about the location of specific automatic license plate reader systems from being shared.
April McCollum, a KHP public information officer, said the agency used Flock cameras to help recover stolen vehicles, identify vehicles that flee from accident scenes, locate missing or kidnapped people, and gather information related to drug trafficking, among other uses.
“KHP uses ALPRs to increase public safety and enhance the criminal investigatory process for our agency, and for state and local law enforcement partners in Kansas,” McCollum said.
Bonnie Bennett, a records custodian with Kansas Department of Transportation, said KDOT had a process that “provides permits directly to law enforcement agencies to install license plate readers on state highway right of way.”
KDOT’s response didn’t identify who might own or operate the camera near Marion.
What are Flock cameras?
Flock cameras capture license plates as well as other visible characteristics of vehicles.
Flock says its APLRs can identify a vehicle’s make, model, color, and other features such as bumper stickers and decals.
Information captured by the cameras is stored in a database that participating law enforcement agencies can access.
McCollum said Flock cameras used by KHP didn’t use facial recognition, collect personally identifiable information, generate traffic citations, or record live video.
Flock Safety says access to its system is limited to users that have been approved. It also says data is automatically deleted after a set period of about seven days, unless “local law says otherwise.”
A representative of Flock Safety could not be reached by phone or email.
Misuse concerns
Growing use of ALPR systems has raised questions about how information they collect is used.
In Sedgwick County, a former police chief was found to have used Flock cameras 228 times to track his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend, according to 2024 reports and law-enforcement proceedings. He also followed the couple out of town in his police vehicle.
Flock Safety has since implemented additional policies intended to prevent misuse, including requirements that searches be connected to legitimate investigations. Audit tools and other measures can suspend access when activity meets certain criteria.
Questions have been raised about the possibility of mistakes when information from cameras is used during investigations.
In Florida, a woman was jailed for 13 days after police incorrectly identified her as the driver involved in a wrong-way crash that killed three people.
Police relied in part on a Flock camera image of a vehicle they thought resembled hers, according to reports. The woman later testified before the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee. Charges against her were dropped.
McCollum said KHP established uniform guidelines, and policies governing proper use and application of Flock cameras by its personnel.
State law makes unauthorized access to or disclosure of computer system information a criminal offense. McCollum said misuse of Flock camera data could violate that law.
“Officers charged with such conduct may be subject to suspension or revocation of their law enforcement certification,” she said.
Some residents the Record spoke with either didn’t know what Flock cameras were or had not given much thought to them.
Jane Weber, rural Marion, said she generally trusted police, but reading stories about Flock camera misuse raised concerns for her.
“It’s something I’m just now kind of getting aware of,” she said. “Especially that story [from Florida] last week.”
Weber said she would like to see Flock cameras used strictly for police investigations and ongoing cases.
“I worry about them sharing information,” she said. “Not that I have anything to hide. … It’s just the overreach of it that frightens me.”
Wayne Weber, Jane’s husband, has seen the Flock camera near the US-56/77/K-150 roundabout. He sees some potential value in the technology but has reservations about its continuous operation.
“I think in some instances, they’re probably all right in order to check tag numbers,” he said. “But just to have them out there to take pictures all the time, I don’t think that’s quite right.”
How common are they?
DeFlock.org, a crowd-sourced database that maps ALPRs, lists two Flock cameras in Marion County.
The Record confirmed the location of the camera near Marion, but couldn’t independently confirm the camera listed near Tabor College.
Because DeFlock relies on cameras that have been documented by users rather than a comprehensive government inventory, its numbers shouldn’t be considered a complete count of ALPRs operating in an area.
Based on the two documented cameras and Marion County’s population of roughly 12,000, DeFlock calculates about 1.7 documented cameras per 10,000 residents.
It ranks Marion County 1,469th among 3,222 U.S. counties and Puerto Rico based on its documented camera-per-capita calculation.
Neighboring Chase County also has two cameras listed on DeFlock.
With a population of about 2,572, that produces a documented rate of about 11.6 cameras per 10,000 residents.
DeFlock lists 1,763 cameras statewide and calculates about six documented cameras per 10,000 residents.
Several cameras are documented near Marion County’s borders, including one about a mile west of the county line on US-50 in Harvey County, another about two miles east of the county line on US-50 in Chase County, and one about three miles south of Burns on US-77 in Butler County.