The City of Mountain View wants the public to know that data collected by its Flock cameras was accessed by federal agencies — and, allegedly, without the city’s consent.
An internal audit also found that the data was accessed by California law enforcement agencies, which was not approved by the Mountain View Police Department.
From August to November 2024, the City of Mountain View says several federal law enforcement agencies accessed a Flock license plate reader camera located at San Antonio Road and Charleston Road.
The city says an internal audit found a nationwide search setting that was turned on by Flock Safety. The city declined an interview request, but in a statement, it says: “This setting was enabled without (the Mountain View Police Department’s) permission or knowledge. This is a system failure on Flock Safety’s part.”
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According to the city, the federal agencies that accessed the camera’s data include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offices in Kentucky and Tennessee; Langley Air Force Base in Virginia; the U.S. GSA Office of Inspector General; Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada; and an Ohio Air Force Base.
Mountain View police also discovered that a statewide search function “was not operating within the system controls we established.”
That allowed California law enforcement agencies to access the data from 29 of the city’s 30 Flock cameras, which was not approved by the city.
The camera settings have since been changed.
“There is just no such thing as enough safeguards. They have the technology to get into what they want, when they want, and how they want it. That’s just what’s true. And that’s just the reality that we all need to be operating in right now,” said Cat Brooks, with the Anti Police-Terror Project, a coalition focused on eradicating police violence.
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While Mountain View says it worked hard with Flock Safety during the outset of the program to design a model that strictly prohibits out-of-state data sharing, Brooks argues that just fixing data settings isn’t enough to fix the problem.
“The city can goodwill it to death. It’s irrelevant what their intentions are,” Brooks said. “If they are gathering that data, there is no protecting that data from anybody who wants it and who wants it bad enough.”
A Flock Safety spokesperson issued this statement to ABC7 News: “Sharing settings within Flock are always under the control of the agency. We are proud of the positive impact Mountain View PD has made with our technology, and we hope to resolve the concerns of the Police Department directly with them.”
The city concludes by saying: “It is unclear at this time whether the City of Mountain View’s relationship with Flock Safety will continue. In the coming weeks, MVPD will bring a review of the ALPR pilot program to the City Council. Currently, staff is evaluating our relationship with Flock Safety and assessing alternative vendors that offer similar capabilities and a stronger track record of data protection, oversight, and transparency.”
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