flock in burbank
the issue on the ground
The Burbank Police Department (PPD) is currently operating 57 Flock Safety cameras around the city and they want more.
Flock cameras are Automated License Plate Readers, or ALPRs. But they don’t just track license plates. These cameras surveil and track people, and have been used by ICE and DHS to track down and deport innocent people.
According to Flock’s own Transparency Portal, over 350 organizations have access to the data captured by Flock cameras - several have ties to ICE and DHS.
Recent investigations have found that the Burbank Police Department had not kept up on the audits required by California law for agencies operating automated license plate readers. When they tried to play catch up, they found that three former employees had live access to the surveillance database after leaving the department.
Burbank deserves better. We know that safety is not brought about by surveillance and policing. True safety comes from community and life-giving infrastructure.
This page exists to keep residents informed, share verified information, and coordinate us to take action.
Map from maps.flock.org
what can we do?
On Wednesday, August 19, the Burbank Police Commission will continue their discussion of the use of Flock and ALPRs in Burbank policing. Email the Commission (PCommission@burbankca.gov) or provide public comment by either attending the meeting at 6 p.m., Burbank City Hall, or calling in for public comment at 818-238-3335. This is a chance for Burbank residents to make their voices heard!
Burbank should join dozens of cities across the country who have ended their contracts with Flock, removed cameras, and rejected any ALPR replacements such as Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz, and recently the Los Angeles Police Department.
We are calling on the Burbank City Council to:
Disable and remove all Flock Safety cameras around Burbank
The cameras and their data could be requisitioned by Federal agencies like ICE at any moment. The only way to protect ourselves is to shut down and remove Flock cameras.
Commit to cancelling the contract with Flock as soon as possible
The city lost the opportunity to cancel the Flock contract cleanly when it was up for renewal in July. Burbank should not continue its relationship with Flock and, instead of funding mass surveillance of Burbank residents and families, should work with the community to support alternative public safety measures.
Do not replace Flock with another ALPR vendor
All ALPR - regardless of vendor - still carry privacy risks and are ripe for abuse and misuse. They create an indiscriminate and retrospective database for police to search - a violation of our 4th amendment rights!
Commit to using the money instead to fund community-based initiatives,
not more ALPRs or surveillance tech. We know that more surveillance technology will not keep us safe. We need the Council to commit to a vision of true community safety that’s based in evidence and thoughtful consideration of what the community wants.
take action
Burbank City Council voted on June 2, 2026 to pass the coming year’s budget unchanged - including the Police Department’s contract with Flock, which was automatically set to renew in July.
Now, Councilmembers are claiming that the contract cannot be addressed until Spring 2027, leaving Burbank residents vulnerable to tracking and exploitation for a full year. The Council and Burbank Police are within their rights to cancel the contract, pay it out, and have the cameras removed.
Call or email City Council to express your disappointment in their inaction and tell them we want Flock out of Burbank.
818-238-5750
FAQs
does burbank share alpr data out of state or with federal agencies?
1
While the Burbank Flock Transparency Portal claims that only in-state organizations have access to Burbank Flock data, several of these organizations collaborate with Federal Agencies and the Master Services Agreement between Flock and Burbank states that Flock may access, use, preserve, and/or disclose the footage to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or third parties.
does burbank regulate alpr at the local level?
2
No, the City of Burbank has not imposed any guardrails or regulations on the use of ALPR by the Police Department. The BPD use policy is set separately with Flock Safety and BPD gets to decide on its own how to use and administer the Burbank ALPR cameras.
Burbank has no surveillance oversight body, no technology guardrail ordinance, no privacy officer, and no formal mechanisms ensuring that there is community input before buying or deploying technologies with surveillance capabilities.
have flock technologies helped reduce crime in burbank?
3
The Burbank Police Department claims that the Flock cameras have resulted in 230 arrests, 90 stolen vehicles recovered, and 6 guns recovered. These figures are not from any analysis that the department has done but are instead from an audit done by Flock that does not include a breakdown of how many of those outcomes can be directly attributed to the use of ALPR cameras versus other investigative tools.
Regardless of whether or not the claims that Flock is making are true (though they do not match up with data from the California Department of Justice), there has not been a demonstrable year-over-year impact on crime in the city. Burbank recorded 297 motor vehicle thefts in 2022, prior to the installation of Flock cameras, 315 in 2023, and 303 in 2024. Annual data has not been released for 2025.
Even if there had been a demonstrable impact on crime in Burbank, the level of surveillance does not match the supposed benefits - of all scans done from January 2025 to February 2026, only 0.04 percent of scans (1 in 2,500) resulted in a database alert that warranted law enforcement follow-up.
1.5 million license plates are scanned every 30 days in Burbank. Of those, 0.04 % generate a follow-up. 99.96% of plate data collected are from regular citizens whose information was collected, stored, distributed, and fed into Flock’s Artificial Intelligence Systems to train it.