Drop “Flock” in Berkeley: May 7

This Thursday May 7, 2026 at Berkeley City Council

See below for details and background

See here for press release for 4pm Press Conference and Rally!

See also Berkeley Speaks pages on Resources for De-Flocking; Berkeley Leaders Who Do Not Support Flock; and a backgrounder from 2025 on stopping local collaboration with immigration.


It is Decision Time for mass surveillance (spying) in Berkeley. The votes the city council takes on May 7 will set the community’s direction on public safety for years to come. And that direction is looking grim.
The choice facing a very divided council is whether to move away from so-called “community oriented policing” to tech-driven, automated, computer-oriented enforcement. This change is part of the national movement, inspired by Donald Trump, to rely on private-sector tech, AI, and surveillance tools to drive law enforcement and immigration policies.
There is a more concrete link between the local policing and the national MAGA agenda. The company that supplies those surveillance cameras, “Flock Safety,” is very close with Trump and with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). While Flock denies sharing cities’ data with ICE, sources document numerous ways that the immigration agency can get access to our the massive stores of images and videos from our people.

Tell your council member “NO” to mass surveillance

Demand an end to Flock’s surveillance contract

As we begin the week of decision on Flock, Berkeley Speaks will use ths page to do two things:

  1. Explain the ways you can influence the council’s decision.
  2. Share what we’ve learned about this complex issue to help you prepare to speak with confidence.

I. How to tell the City Council “Flock No!”

Contact your city council representatives.

Contact your city council member and let them know why they should vote against the Flock contract BEFORE the special city council meeting on 5/7/26. Or, if you are short of time:

Sign the full City Council letter campaign on Action Network! Or:

Sign the District 6 letter campaign on Action Network! Or:

Sign the District 8 letter campaign on Action Network!

Rally Thursday May 7, 4-5PM, before the city council meeting

Flock opponents will rally at 4pm in the courtyard outside the council chamber 1231 Addison Street.

See the press release here. Location: 1231 Addison Street

To join by phone: Dial 1-669-254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free) and enter Meeting ID: 161 674 7986.

Speak up at the special city council meeting, May 7 at 5pm

Advocates for privacy and immigrant rights have twice delayed this massive surveillance expansion. On September 9, 2025, and March 23, 2026, a massive outpouring of community opposition raised crucial issues about abuse of Flock-controlled data, including right here in Berkeley. In both meetings public comment went beyond 1AM, forcing council to table the subject to future meetings.

City Council May 7 agenda here; Location: 1231 Addison Street Zoom link here

To join by phone: Dial 1-669254-5252 or 1-833-568-8864 (Toll Free) and enter Meeting ID: 161 674 7986

II. Why we say “Flock No!”

There is a huge amount of information–and misinformation–flying around. Below, Berkeley Speaks has picked out some of the most helpful points to help you get ready to speak your mind this week.

We will touch on these issues:

  • What are ALPRs?
  • Flock is an unfit partner for the City of Berkeley
  • The dangers of mass surveillance, with a special message from Black leaders in South Berkeley.
  • Most helpful websites to learn about Flock

What are ALPRs?

  • DeFlock.org says: “Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs or LPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car’s location, date, and time. They also capture your car’s make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers.

” These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime…creating a loophole that doesn’t require a warrant.” www.Deflock.org  

Privacy Violations

ALPRs track your movements and store your data for long periods of time, creating a detailed record of your location history.

Risk of Misuse

Data from ALPRs has led to wrongful arrests, profiling, and stalking ex-partners by police officers.

Limited Benefits

There’s no substantial evidence that ALPRs effectively prevent crime, despite Flock’s unethical attempts to prove otherwise.

Flock is an unfit partner for the City of Berkeley.

  • Dishonesty on Flock’s usefulness in preventing crime:

Kitty Calavita: Flock claims their cameras bring down crime, claims which are contrary to the evidence, and they continue to do so after the claims are debunked.  Calavita also shows that Flock’s largest shareholder, billionaire Marc Andreesen, is a leading supporter of Trump and considers DEI and immigration to be “two forms of discrimination” (Fortune). Finally, she documents Flock’s corruptly hiring local mayors and city council members “to promote its business, to get local policies passed and contracts signed to benefit Flock.” online.https://docs.google.com/document/d/15SDtl18ivWM_lm6Be8aXeiEoAi_zQmgzc/edit

Collaboration with ICE:

The Berkeley Immigration Collaborative (BIC) has found that “Flock Safety has been violating its contracts with other municipalities by sharing their data with the federal government.

For example, despite Illinois’ sanctuary state status, Flock still illegally shared their data with the federal government, data that was used to target immigrants, people having abortions, and others. Flock also recently admitted CPB has had access to 80,000 Flock AI cameras, despite their previous denials.”  https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/09/05/opinion-flock-berkeley-surveillance-cam-data-trump-and-ice

The Berkeley Immigration Collaborative (BIC) has found that “Flock Safety has been violating its contracts with other municipalities by sharing their data with the federal government. For example, despite Illinois’ sanctuary state status, Flock still illegally shared their data with the federal government, data that was used to target immigrants, people having abortions, and others. Flock also recently admitted CPB has had access to 80,000 Flock AI cameras, despite their previous denials.”  https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/09/05/opinion-flock-berkeley-surveillance-cam-data-trump-and-ice

Right here in Berkeley, an internal BPD audit found three instances between January and June of 2025 in which unnamed external police agencies conducted immigration-related searches in the Flock database. One search was for “ICE” and two were for “CBP” (Customs and Border Protection).

Misuse against community members:

Business Insider reports that Flock’s imperfect technology “unraveled one man’s life.” A cautionary tale about, and reliance on tech. A mis-read by the Toledo Ohio Flock system told a cop that a car driven by its African American’s car was stolen. The officer set his dog on the driver, and it proceeded to maul the driver’s arm.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said Flock “won’t disclose how often it misidentifies cars.”

The ACLU reports that “The same kinds of police department logs that revealed ICE’s access to Flock’s dragnet also revealed that a police officer in Texas used the system to search nationwide for a woman who’d had a self-administered abortion, which is illegal in the state.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has reported that Flock enables surveillance of protesters.  

“[In] datasets representing more than 12 million searches logged by more than 3,900 agencies between December 2024 and October 2025, the patterns were unmistakable.

Agencies logged hundreds of searches related to political demonstrations—the 50501 protests in February, Hands Off protests in April, and No Kings protests in June and October….Sometimes searches explicitly referenced protest activity; other times, agencies used vague terminology to obscure surveillance of constitutionally protected speech.”

The dangers of mass surveillance.

How ICE puts together seemingly innocent bits of data to find people to deport.

“While companies can manipulate you [using this data], they cannot put you in jail. But the U.S. government can, and it now purchases massive quantities of your information from commercial data brokers.” Most frightening, “The government is able to purchase Americans’ sensitive data because the information it buys is not subject to the same restrictions as information it collects directly.” Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) said buying information on Americans without obtaining a warrant was an “outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment.” 

  • The ACLU states, “Together with time, date, and location coordinates, [photos of every passing license plate are] stored for years, generating a literal and intimate roadmap of people’s private lives.” https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/documents-reveal-ice-using-driver-location-data
  • Secure Justice adds, “Federal immigration agencies have routine access to California-originated law enforcement and DMV data through national systems such as CLETS, NCIC, and Nlets.” https://secure-justice.org/blog/californias-immigration-firewall-has-a-blind-spot

  • Techcrunch and the American Immigration Council confirm that both ICE and the FBI buy location data and use it to detain immigrants and protestors, including US citizens. Do not be misled. Our ALPR data will be used for deportations.
  • If Berkeley collects bulk data, ICE and other federal agencies will take it—especially if it is stored offsite with a third party like Flock. Berkeley resident Kitt Saginor shows how police statements that the data they share with Flock is protected from federal agencies is misinformation. Berkeley’s Flock contract itself makes an exception for judicial warrants, and will turn over whatever a judge orders. And a FISA warrant (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is even more powerful, being entirely secret. The only way to avoid ICE getting our data is to not collect it.
  • Listen to Black voices. Healthy Black Families calls out this warning:

Adopting this technology is akin to installing a security system in your home to protect your child, while entrusting that system to someone whose reliability and safeguards are deeply in question. The appearance of safety does not equal actual safety when the underlying system cannot be trusted. Expanding these tools risks reinforcing patterns of disproportionate impact on Black communities and other marginalized residents.

Surveillance technologies do not operate in a vacuum. They are layered onto systems already shaped by racial inequity and over-policing. Expanding these tools risks reinforcing patterns of disproportionate impact on Black communities and other marginalized residents—particularly in a city actively working to repair harms rooted in redlining, displacement, and systemic injustice.

Public safety cannot be achieved through surveillance expansion alone. True safety is built through stable housing, economic opportunity, community investment, and trust. Technologies that monitor communities without addressing root causes risk exacerbating harm rather than preventing it.

Healthy Black Families urges the City Council to reject this contract and instead invest in strategies that align with Berkeley’s commitments to racial justice, civil liberties, and community well-being.

The decision before you is not simply about adopting a technology—it is about whether Berkeley will uphold its values in practice, especially in the wake of unresolved breaches of trust.

We urge you to vote no.

Read the full statement from Healthy Black Families here.

Very helpful websites to learn more about Flock & surveillance.