LAPD allows contract with surveillance giant Fluke to expire, citing ‘serious concerns’ about civil liberties and privacy

The Los Angeles Police Department has reportedly ended its agreement with Flock Safety, a surveillance company that helps law enforcement track vehicles using thousands of license plate cameras located across the United States.

A senior Los Angeles police official told the media, as first reported ABC7 and Los Angeles Timessaid the police department would allow its three-year contract with Fluke to expire when it expires on Saturday. The ministry cited “serious concerns” about civil liberties and privacy. Fluke cameras are operated by a company based in Atlanta, Georgia and not by the LAPD.

“This contract was not renewed due to serious concerns about civil liberties and civil rights issues, especially regarding privacy and the data collected from these cameras,” Dean Gialamas, chief information officer for the LAPD, was quoted as saying. “The LAPD had to make a difficult decision, in this case to stop using Flock’s services until we can resolve those data, privacy, security, and sharing concerns through a contractual relationship.”

An LAPD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from TechCrunch over the weekend, and it’s unclear whether Flock cameras will continue to record in the absence of an active contract. According to ABC7, the police department is looking for new language in its contract that addresses privacy and data storage concerns.

As the third-largest police department in the United States, the LAPD is one of Fluke’s largest government clients to date. Several major US cities have also stopped working with Flock, including… Mountain View, California and (South Portland, Maine).citing privacy concerns and fears that federal immigration officials used cameras to track people in violation of their local laws governing sanctuary city policies.

The contract expiration caught the monitoring company by surprise, Holly Bellin, a Flock spokeswoman, said in an email to TechCrunch. Fluke said he is confident the company can “clear up existing misconceptions” that led to the contract termination. Fluke did not mention the specific misconceptions he was referring to.

Flock has a network of at least 80,000 cameras across the United States that scan license plates and allow police and federal agencies to track vehicles.

The company has faced backlash from local communities that approved and then backed out of its deals with Flock over privacy and surveillance concerns. Some locals took matters into their own hands by dismantling Flock cameras and Cover it with garbage bagseven as some communities have found that Flock reinstall cameras Without obtaining permission from local authorities.

Researchers have It identified an increase in documented cases of motorists being stopped, detained, held at gunpoint by police, or imprisoned, due to false positives and errors in license plate readers. Last week, a journalist specialized in car reviews and a news website drive detailing how he was tracked for days and then cornered by police after a Flock camera mistakenly flagged the license plate of the loaner review unit he was driving as stolen.

Flock also faced scrutiny after several security vulnerabilities exposed cameras and data, which in one case allowed Independent news outlet 404 Media to watch themselves live on publicly exposed Fluke cameras. Lawmakers also urged federal consumer authorities to investigate Fluke Failure to implement measures It would prevent hackers and spies from accessing its security cameras, warning that many police user logins are not protected by multi-factor authentication.

As reported by 404 Media That the US Drug Enforcement Administration used a local police officer’s password without his knowledge to search for a suspect accused of violating immigration laws.

Do you know of security or privacy issues related to Flock Safety, or issues with Flock cameras in your community? We would love to hear from you. From a non-work device, you can contact Zack Whittaker securely on the Signal messaging app using the username zackwhittaker.1337