US university students tell surveillance cameras to Flock off

Student activism is driving a nationwide retreat from Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers on college campuses. Since April, at least ten universities in seven states have ended their contracts, including Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, Emory and several University of Wisconsin campuses; the University at Buffalo has paused a planned trial. Students and faculty argue that records of where vehicles travel can expose vulnerable people and enable broad surveillance. Their concerns include law-enforcement access: a local investigation found Houston police searched the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s camera network 183,000 times in three months. Protests and petitions are also pressuring universities that have not changed their policies, while high school students in Colorado and Georgia are organizing against cameras at schools.

Ending a Flock contract often does not end license plate surveillance. Stanford is replacing its system with Genetec cameras, and Binghamton is switching to Axon; organizers at both schools say they want safeguards or an end to all such systems, not merely a different vendor. The company says its cameras help police solve crimes, citing cases involving a university shooting, a school parking-lot shooting and stolen campus equipment. It denies enabling mass surveillance or partnering with federal immigration authorities, though reports have described local police searches that indirectly aided immigration enforcement. Flock has updated rules on auditing, data retention and sharing, but student campaigns reflect a broader debate over whether claimed safety benefits justify collecting location data and who should be allowed to access it.