Angela Nguyen, a senior at Stanford University, has been on a mission to make sure her school doesn’t use automated license plate readers, like those made by Flock Safety, for mass surveillance. The 21-year-old computer science major helped collect hundreds of signatures earlier this year from students, faculty, alumni and residents to demand that Stanford drop its current Flock contract and codify safeguards for similar tech tools the school may use in the future. The fear, Nguyen says, is that these cameras, which show where a vehicle was at a certain point in time, can be exploited to victimize vulnerable people.
Stanford cut ties with Flock this summer, and it’s not alone. The privacy reckoning over the company’s surveillance cameras is gaining momentum at schools nationwide. Since April, at least ten university campuses across seven states, have scrapped contracts with Flock.
That includes Cornell University, Penn State University, Elgin Community College, Emory University, Binghamton University, Kent State University and the University of Wisconsin’s Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh branches. Last week, the University of Buffalo announced an indefinite pause on its plans for a 60-day pilot program. Elgin Community College tried, unsuccessfully, to cancel its Flock contract before it expired in April.
School officials said they resorted to placing black plastic trash bags over the cameras “out of an abundance of caution” until the company removed the cameras after the agreement lapsed. A few schools – Appalachian State University and the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Charlotte and Chapel Hill campuses – have kept Flock contracts but restricted national access to the cameras’ records. UNC Charlotte made the change after local news outlet WBTV found that the Houston police department had searched the school’s Flock camera network more than any other agency between March and May 2026: a total of 183,000 times.
Schools that haven’t yet restricted what agencies can access Flock or dropped contracts are feeling the pressure. At the University of Florida and Florida State University, activists have turned to protests, online campaigns and petitions to express their discontent. The state of Florida recently banned Flock cameras and other license plate readers from its highways, but those laws don’t extend to private property or local rights-of-way.
The uproar on campuses reflects a broader uprising. This year, dozens of cities have deactivated, canceled or rejected Flock contracts. Vigilantes have damaged and destroyed the devices to the delight of their social media followers.
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