Citing privacy and accuracy concerns, cities like Lynchburg, Virginia, and states like Florida have turned against Flock, the nation's main purveyor of automated license plate readers (ALPRs); conservative GOP politicians like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri have too. 

Meanwhile, San Francisco — which has one of the most liberal voting records in the U.S. — is sticking with its more than 400 Flock cameras.

The city just adopted a new policy late last month that keeps the cameras rolling, but places new limits on them, including requiring police officers to obtain approval from their bosses, and a connection to an active criminal investigation, to search camera data more than 30 days old and demonstrate a connection to an active criminal investigation, San Francisco's NBC news affiliate reported.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins recently defended the AI-powered cameras to NPR.

"What the license plate reader cameras have absolutely done — and we do have proof of this — is give the police the ability to catch people who have engaged in crime," she said.

There is no question that crime is down in San Francisco , which dropped almost 59 percent and more than 82 percent, respectively, in January through August 2026 compared with the same period in 2022, according to NPR's analysis of SFPD data. Whether that has anything to do with Flock is less clear, especially because other factors, like the AI boom gentrification wave and the dramatic nationwide post-COVID crime drop , could also be at play.

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