Amid Flock backlash, LAPD moves forward with license plate readers from another company

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Set us as preferred Local advocates thought they had scored an important victory earlier this year after the Los Angeles Police Department declined to renew an agreement for Flock Safety license plate readers over concerns about data sharing for immigration enforcement.But earlier this week, a controversial pilot program that would attach hundreds of license plate readers to streetlights around the city cleared the City Council, and it is expected to launch in the near future.The new readers are made by Axon Enterprise, another heavyweight in the police surveillance market that until recently had largely avoided the intense public backlash against Flock Safety.

Dozens of cities and counties across the U.S.have ended or paused their relationships with Flock, and at least a handful have since signed contracts with Axon, which has a decades-old relationship with the LAPD and has long supplied the department with its trademark Taser stun guns and body-worn cameras.In addition, Axon recently secured a $235-million contract with the LAPD for new body cameras, Tasers and AI-assisted software for writing police reports over the next decade.Perhaps more than any other major tech company, Axon has benefited from the anti-Flock vitriol as it jockeys with other competitors to secure lucrative contracts to equip the 8,500-officer LAPD ahead of the 2028 Olympics.LAPD officials have said they would be open to working with Flock again, so long as it agrees to more data-sharing safeguards for the license plate readers.

Axon has said it would abide by the department’s terms.The LAPD and other law enforcement agencies around the country have used plate-reading technology for years.The readers, which are typically mounted on patrol vehicles or light poles, work by continuously scanning license plates and checking them against vast databases o...