404 Media finds local police running Flock searches for ICE through a side door

In May 2025, 404 Media reported that local police departments around the country were performing lookups in Flock’s nationwide license plate reader system for immigration-related purposes and other ICE investigations. ICE had no formal contract with Flock; instead, federal officials asked state and local agencies to run searches on their behalf. The searches were identified because users had typed reasons such as “ICE” or “illegal immigration” into the required search-reason field. A policy tracker citing the data counted more than 4,000 lookups conducted at the behest of the federal government for immigration purposes. Subsequent Virginia audit logs from Bridgewater and Mecklenburg County showed nearly 3,000 searches using the terms “ICE,” “ERO,” “immigration” and “deportee.”