On Dec. 6, Bend resident Jonathan Westmoreland started a petition on Change.org, titling it “Ban the use of Flock cameras in Bend, Oregon.”
His idea sprung from social media clamor. Users on r/Bend, the Reddit community dedicated to Bend and its surrounding area, had been arguing amongst themselves for days about the City’s Flock surveillance camera program. Even Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler joined the discussion.
Flock Safety, registered as Flock Group Inc., is the largest U.S. vendor of automatic license plate recognition technology. Their cameras use AI-powered technology to scan license plates and other identifying vehicle information, storing the data in a private database that partnering law enforcement agencies can access and search.
Privacy and cybersecurity issues have dogged Flock since the beginning, and the Atlanta-based surveillance company has made largely negative national headlines. Most recently, a police chief in Georgia was arrested after using Flock’s database to stalk and harass a woman.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden is one of Flock’s most prominent critics. “At the urging of concerned constituents, I conducted further oversight and have determined that Flock cannot live up to its commitment to protect the privacy and security of Oregonians,” Wyden said in a press release. “Abuse of Flock cameras is inevitable, and Flock has made it clear it takes no responsibility to prevent or detect that… Elected officials can best protect their constituents from the inevitable abuses of Flock cameras by removing Flock from their communities.”
On Reddit, Kebler provided some context. “Bend PD does not share our information outside of the state of Oregon, and we do not share information with federal agencies. We do allow sharing with other local Oregon police agencies for investigation purposes,” she commented. “The data is held within [Flock’s] secure server… Since implementation we’ve had multiple successes directly related to [ALPR], including arrests for local crimes, recovery of a missing/endangered person, and recovery of multiple stolen vehicles.”
But r/Bend wasn’t buying it. Replies to Kebler pointed out that Flock has previously given federal agencies access to local data. The City of Woodburn in Marion County suspended its contract with Flock for this reason.
Users strongly disagreed with the Mayor’s characterization of Flock as “secure.” Illinois Sen. Raja Krishnamoorthi has stated that Flock’s “failure to provide substantive privacy protections poses a serious threat to Americans’ data and could result in bad actors accessing the ALPR system with billions of license plates.” As of December 2025, at least 35 Flock customers have been hacked.
“I know there is general concern about Flock cameras, and I know our department is working to create stronger policy to address some of those concerns,” Kebler conceded, promising to bring the topic up to City Manager Eric King and Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. “I’ll continue tracking the issue and talking to some colleagues in other cities that have dealt with it.”
The Source asked the Bend Police Department for more information on the City’s approach to Flock surveillance. The Mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
“For clarity’s sake, Bend Police operate four cameras in two locations along Highway 97,” said Sheila Miller, a spokesperson for the department. Some camera locations can be found on DeFlock.me, an activist-run program dedicated to mapping, creating awareness of, and fostering resistance towards ALPR surveillance.
“We believe ALPR is a very valuable law enforcement tool,” Miller stated. “We’ve already seen a number of cases that these cameras have helped bring to successful conclusions. Some examples: the arrest of a stabbing suspect who was attempting to flee to California; the arrest of a sexual predator from Christmas Valley; and breakthrough leads on an organized vehicle theft ring.”
The following paragraph in Bend PD’s statement is word-for-word identical to a Kebler Reddit comment: “The data is held within the vendor’s secure server, similar to how bodyworn camera data and other digital evidence are held and secured, through a CJIS-compliant system (Flock, Axon, Amazon AWS GovCloud, etc.)”
Flock Safety did not respond to a request for comment on whether it provides specific PR language and damage control guidance to its customers. “I shared my talking points with the Mayor to ensure she had correct information,” Miller told the Source.
Bend PD provided more information on how it operates Flock technology. “The cameras photograph license plates and the exterior of vehicles – what is openly visible on roadways,” Miller explained. “Our ALPR settings allow for collection of photographs and holds them for 30 days. They are purged if not used as evidence in an open law enforcement investigation.”
Flock recently partnered with Ring LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon beloved by homeowner associations and feared by privacy activists. Ring doorbells are always watching, and Amazon has been more than happy to let law enforcement access that privately stored data, bypassing warrants and traditional investigative action.
“Through a new partnership, Ring’s Community Requests feature will now connect with Flock Safety’s technology platforms, FlockOS and Flock Nova, allowing neighbors to securely and privately share helpful video footage with local public safety agencies during an active investigation,” Flock Safety stated in a company blog post.
“We have not used the Flock partnership,” Bend PD stated. “Our agency operates a program called Connect Bend that encourages people who want to assist in law enforcement investigations by registering their home cameras, including Ring doorbell cameras…We cannot see any of the footage without the user providing it to us.”
A study by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights alleges that the U.S. Border Patrol and other federal immigration agencies accessed Flock networks in Washington. In at least 10 cases, the police departments associated with the Flock networks “did not explicitly authorize Border Patrol searches of their network data.”
Oregon’s situation is similar, according to Wyden. “Flock deceived its state and local law enforcement customers about sharing data with immigration enforcement agencies,” the senator wrote. An investigation by his office found that ICE, the Secret Service, and at least two more federal agencies “had access to Flock cameras” in Oregon earlier this year.
“The contract with Flock was a one-year pilot program, and the contract will be up for renewal in the spring and we will conduct a review of overall performance and public support,” Miller told the Source. “Several times we have shared concerns with Flock about how the software functions… We are working closely with both Flock and state legislators to ensure we are using the software for legitimate law enforcement purposes, to protect all of our community members, and to ensure the data is safe.”
As backlash increases, cities across the country are pulling the plug on ALPR initiatives. Will Bend commit to de-Flocking if the new petition gains traction? “We want the community to understand the technology we’re using and why,” stated Miller. “Our Police Chief’s Advisory Council, including several members who expressed discomfort with Flock, recently got to see that technology in action. After that demonstration they were universally supportive of our use of the cameras. In fact, many members requested we add more ALPR cameras.”
Bend PD credited ALPR for helping to solve the aforementioned July stabbing incident, which Kebler also mentioned on Reddit, and said that Flock cameras could have “given us a head start on solving” the 2023 murder of Evelyn Weaver.
“Our agency has had no reported or suspected misuse of Flock camera data,” Miller said. “We feel responsible to ensure these systems are used appropriately, but we are balancing that responsibility with the knowledge that this is a very effective, efficient tool for law enforcement.”
But Flock usage in contravention of Oregon state law could be happening regardless of a department’s intentions. According to Wyden, all it takes is one cop. “In several cases, local law enforcement personnel shared their Flock passwords with federal agents, who then used their access to conduct searches for immigration-related purposes. In several other cases, local law enforcement ran searches at the request of federal agents, again, for immigration-related purposes,” the senator stated.
As of publication, Westmoreland’s petition has 90 verified signatures.
Editor’s Note: Updated Dec. 11 with additional information from Bend PD.
This article appears in the Source December 11, 2025.
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Given what we know abut the lawless Trump administration I think it is safe to assume that ICE/DHS will access Bend’ Flock data (as it has apparently done elsewhere) whether the city “allows” it or not. Seems to me the best and smartest course would be to simply turn off those cameras. –Michael Funke
How in the world did the authorities caught criminals before invading everyone’s privacy with cameras everywhere? Must of been an miracle everytime. Yes, I’m being facetious.
Federal immigration agents have access to local Flock camera data in ways that local law enforcement agencies are not even aware. A UW researcher describes the different ways in this OPB audio report:
Immigration agencies have access to license plate data in Washington state https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/04/think-out-loud-washington-immigration-agencies-license-plate/
Can we do nothing anymore without being entered into some database?
From stopflock.com: “Real public safety comes from investing in communities, not stalking them.”