Immigration enforcement

On July 6 the Windsor Town Council voted 5-4 to keep the town’s 16 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras off and to end its contract. The council had voted 8-1 in February to pause the cameras while it tried to renegotiate contract language on resident data ahead of a May renewal. A resident’s public records request showed Windsor data was searched 590,000 times over nine weeks. If the contract is terminated early, the town will pay around $8,000. The cameras are to be taken down by the fall.

On March 31, 2026 the Denver City Council voted 7-6 to approve a one-year, $150,000 contract with Axon for 50 fixed license plate reader cameras, hours after Flock Safety finished removing its more than 100 cameras from city streets. The council president broke a 6-6 tie. Denver had ended its Flock contract after public backlash over privacy and revelations that the company could share data with federal immigration authorities. Opponents on the council argued the vote came before the city’s surveillance task force had written guardrails. Axon had severed its API integration with Flock on July 24, 2025. In July 2026 Douglas County approved a nearly $22.8 million Axon package replacing its 50 Flock cameras with 100 Axon Outpost cameras plus drones.

The Ithaca Common Council voted unanimously to end the city’s contract with Flock Safety, stopping the Ithaca Police Department’s use of the company’s AI-powered license plate cameras. The $70,000 contract was funded entirely by a state grant meant to combat gun violence. Council members and activists cited distrust of Flock, the volume of data collected, and concerns that data could be used in federal immigration enforcement. The city is unlikely to recoup the grant funds. The vote came just over two years after the initial contract was approved.

On February 26, 2026, the law firms Gibbs Mura and Milberg filed a class action against Flock Safety in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging the company violated California’s ALPR Privacy Act (SB 34, 2015) by letting out-of-state and federal agencies, including ICE, CBP, the FBI and the ATF, query California cameras. An amended complaint was filed April 3, 2026. The suit cites San Francisco police cameras being searched by outside agencies more than 1.6 million times in about seven months and a Ventura County audit that found roughly 364,000 unauthorized searches. The Ventura audit, reported in February 2026, found that the National Lookup feature had been reactivated after the sheriff’s office disabled it in 2023; 299 of the queries were explicitly linked to immigration enforcement, and Oxnard police suspended their readers. The suit seeks $2,500 per violation.

Cambridge terminated its contract with Flock Safety on December 10, 2025. The City Council had first approved buying automated license plate readers in February; Flock installed 16 cameras in September. On October 20, the council voted unanimously to suspend police use of the cameras, citing concern that data sharing with federal agencies would violate the city’s sanctuary ordinance. The 16 cameras were deactivated and removed in late October. The city then said two additional cameras had been installed by Flock technicians in late November without the city’s awareness, during the pause. City officials described the episode as a breach of trust and ended the contract.

A network audit of Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Flock cameras revealed that federal and out-of-state agencies conducted over 1,000 immigration-related searches during the first six months of 2025. U.S. Border Patrol made 186 direct searches, and an HSI account made 182. More than 700 searches listed “ICE” as the reason. The searches occurred despite Washington state’s Keep Washington Working Act prohibiting local resources for federal immigration enforcement.

On October 3, 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the City of El Cajon, alleging the city refused to comply with state law by sharing automated license plate reader data with more than 100 out-of-state law enforcement agencies. California law limits ALPR data sharing to “public agencies,” which the attorney general’s October 2023 bulletin says excludes federal and out-of-state agencies. Since 2024 the office has sent letters to 18 California law enforcement agencies, including sheriff’s offices in Contra Costa, Sacramento and Riverside counties, over possible violations. On January 21, 2026, the attorney general filed a further motion in California v. City of El Cajon. In October 2025 Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that would have added new regulations on license plate readers.

According to an analysis by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO, law enforcement conducted nearly 3,000 searches related to immigration enforcement on Virginia’s Flock Safety network over a 12-month period. About 9 in 10 searches were by out-of-state agencies. Audit logs from Bridgewater and Mecklenburg County revealed searches using terms such as ICE, ERO, immigration, and deportee. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office had the highest number of immigration-related searches within Virginia; a spokesperson confirmed it conducted them because federal immigration authorities asked. A new state law limiting data sharing took effect in July.

On September 9, 2025 the Sedona City Council voted unanimously to cancel its contract for automated license-plate readers and remove them. South Tucson voted on February 17, 2026 to end its agreement. Staunton, Virginia announced it would cancel its Flock contract. KOMO reported that Mountlake Terrace, Washington ended a $54,000 agreement but remained responsible for the first year’s payment of $27,000 and was negotiating the balance, that Lynnwood terminated a $171,000 contract, and that cities ending grant-funded agreements early could be required to return funds to the grantor. NPR reported that privacy concerns and federal immigration access to local data were driving the cancellations.

On September 8, 2025, The San Francisco Standard reported, based on records it obtained, that out-of-state law enforcement agencies had run more than 1.6 million searches of the San Francisco Police Department’s Flock license plate reader database, including at least 19 searches marked as related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. California law bars sharing automated license plate reader data with out-of-state agencies for any purpose, and state sanctuary law bars assisting immigration enforcement. The Standard reported that SFPD gave out-of-state agencies direct access between at least August 2024 and February 2025, and that nearly 4,000 out-of-state agencies searched the data. EFF and the ACLU wrote to SFPD that month demanding it stop. A city audit reported in June 2026 found hundreds of additional illegal searches, including improper use by federal agencies.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement began a contract worth up to $9.2 million with Clearview AI for facial recognition on Sept. 5, days before launching its ‘Midway Blitz’ enforcement operation in the Chicago area. Illinois law enforcement agencies are barred from using Clearview because of a BIPA settlement, but the ban does not apply to federal agencies. The contract is the largest among nearly $10 million in federal contracts with Clearview, which also include deals with the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Army, and Customs and Border Protection. No federal law governs the technology’s use.

On August 26, 2025, Evanston ordered Flock Safety to deactivate its 19 license plate reader cameras and issued a 30-day termination notice, effective September 26, after an Illinois Secretary of State audit found Flock had let U.S. Customs and Border Protection access Illinois camera data in violation of state law. Flock challenged the termination. In September the company reinstalled stationary cameras without city authorization, and the city covered the cameras pending removal. The five-year contract, approved January 8, 2024, at $48,500 per year, runs to January 29, 2029; the city paid the first two years and would owe $145,500 for the remaining three if the contract is upheld. As of March 2026 no lawsuit had been filed, the city had not paid its 2026 fee, and the final two cameras were removed after a RoundTable inquiry.

Flock Safety paused pilot programs with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations on August 25, 2025. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said an audit found CBP had accessed Illinois data, calling it “a clear violation of the state law.” Flock CEO Garrett Langley said parameters were unclear. Flock added flag terms including “abortion,” “immigration” and “ICE” in late June. Federal agencies can no longer make blanket statewide searches.

On August 25, 2025, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that an audit of 12 local law enforcement agencies found Flock Safety in violation of state law. The audit found the company lacked proper safeguards on data sharing and had been running a pilot program that gave U.S. Customs and Border Protection access to cameras on Illinois roads. An Illinois law passed two years ago prohibits sharing plate reader data for purposes including investigating immigration status or interfering with reproductive health care. Giannoulias ordered the federal agency’s access to Illinois cameras shut off, and Flock paused its pilot with CBP and other federal agencies nationwide. Flock’s CEO said the company “didn’t create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users.” A follow-up finding on September 5 named the Forest Park Police Department for sharing data with CBP.

In June 2025, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias audited Flock’s license plate reader data sharing. The audit found U.S. Border Patrol searched Elmwood Park data 698 times in June 2025, 1,516 times in July 2025, and 862 times in August 2025. Police departments in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia also searched the data for ICE. On August 25, 2025, the Secretary of State’s office announced the findings and that Giannoulias had ordered Flock to shut off Border Patrol access to all Illinois cameras. Flock revoked Border Patrol access nationwide by that month.

On June 11, 2025, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office notified the Mount Prospect Police Department that other law enforcement agencies had conducted 262 immigration-related searches of the village’s automated license plate reader data. The department said it had been unaware of the searches until notified. The village also learned that the Johnson County, Texas, sheriff’s office had used Flock Safety’s National Lookup feature, accessing Mount Prospect’s data without a data-sharing agreement. Illinois law prohibits using plate reader data to investigate immigration status. Mount Prospect said it has since disabled nationwide access and revoked access for all out-of-state agencies.

A public records request to the Danville, Illinois, police department, obtained by 404 Media, showed that local and state police searched automatic license plate reader data more than 4,000 times for immigration-related reasons between June 1, 2024, and May 5, 2025. Illinois law prohibits using ALPR data for immigration enforcement. The records indicate informal access by ICE to camera networks across more than 5,000 communities nationwide. The technology provider Flock Safety operates over 40,000 ALPR cameras.

On May 5, 2025, the Denver City Council voted down a two-year, $666,000 contract extension with Flock Safety. All council members present voted no, citing concern the cameras could be used for federal immigration enforcement. Mayor Mike Johnston’s office had asked the council to reject the proposal. The city said it would keep the camera system operating while it created a task force. The system photographed about 2 million license plates per month.

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.”

In January 2025, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent used a Palos Heights, Illinois police officer’s Flock Safety password to search a license plate for an immigration violation. Using license plate readers for immigration enforcement is illegal in Illinois. The police department changed the password after discovering the misuse. The incident was reported in audits and agency statements released in 2025.

In July 2022, Cook County held a public hearing on ICE’s use of data brokers. Records obtained by Just Futures Law and Mijente showed ICE’s Chicago field office ran over 13,000 people searches on LexisNexis between March and September 2021, generating over 1,800 reports. Cook County indirectly shares jail data with ICE through data broker Appriss, which supplies LexisNexis. LexisNexis holds a contract with ICE worth up to $22.1 million.

In June 2022, Marin County and its sheriff settled a lawsuit brought by three community activists with ACLU of Northern California and EFF backing. The complaint said the sheriff’s office had, since 2014, shared automated license plate reader data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, other federal agencies and hundreds of out-of-state agencies, in violation of SB 34 and the California Values Act. Under the settlement, the sheriff agreed to stop sharing the data with agencies outside California.

In June 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection subcontractor Perceptics was breached in what CBP called a malicious cyberattack. Images of travellers’ faces and license plates, contracting documents and other data were made publicly available on the internet. About 184,000 traveller images from CBP’s facial-recognition pilot were compromised, and at least 19 were posted to the dark web. The attackers also obtained contractual documents, program-management documents, emails, system configurations, schematics and implementation documentation related to CBP license-plate-reader programs. Perceptics had downloaded sensitive CBP data from an unencrypted device and transferred it to the company’s network, violating DHS security requirements. Perceptics was suspended from federal contracts, subcontracts, grants and loans in June 2019; the suspension was lifted in September 2019. A September 2020 DHS Inspector General report found CBP did not adequately safeguard the data, though no federal networks were compromised.

The ACLU released documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates under a $6.1 million contract with Vigilant Solutions for access to a vast automated license plate reader database. Over 9,000 ICE officers have access to more than 5 billion license plate data points collected by private businesses and additional records from law enforcement. More than 80 local agencies in over a dozen states agreed to share license plate location information with ICE, including agencies in Union City, California, a sanctuary city. The contract runs through September 2020.