Surveillance company Flock generates controversy and a roster of L.A. clients

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

Santa Cruz tried out the surveillance company Flock Safety for a little over a year before deciding it was time to move on.Cambridge, Mass., also had enough and tore up its contract in December.Now, some officials in San Diego have begun to have second thoughts of their own.In recent months, dozens of cities have cut ties with Flock — the nation’s largest provider of automated digital license plate readers — over fears that data the company captures is helping power President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.The same can’t be said in one particularly surprising place: Los Angeles.

Here, Flock still has an eager customer base of local elected officials, police officers, homeowners associations and businesses.California Some police officials are pushing back after a wealthy community gifted the department scores of controversial, high-tech cameras that scan license plates.Unlike some of its competitors, the Atlanta-based company has not only marketed its plate readers to law enforcement as a vital crime-fighting tool, but aggressively pitched its product to private citizens, experts say.“They are tremendous investigative tools,” said LAPD spokesman Capt.

Michael Bland.But for critics, there’s an obvious downside: the potential tracking of law-abiding citizens without a warrant on a scale once thought unimaginable.“These can be really powerful tools to find someone, and identity them.But when you don’t have a suspect, everyone can be a suspect,” said Hannah Bloch-Wehba, a professor of law at Texas A&M University.A Flock spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

California A project to document automated license plate readers arrives as more police agencies are using the surveillance technology.Typically mounted on street poles or atop police cars, plate readers continuously monitor passing vehicles, recording their loc...