From Governing: How AI, Cameras and Drones Are Reshaping Local Policing

Think of how this impacts the 4th Amendment.

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. . . Raven and the Flock cameras are part of Flock Safety, a security technologies company based in Georgia that uses hardware powered by artificial intelligence to build surveillance networks that combine automated license plate readers, video cameras and audio detection to help solve and deter crimes.

Cities all over Idaho and across the country are using an array of mass surveillance programs, such as Flock cameras, AI-equipped license plate readers, audio detection systems for identifying gunfire and facial recognition software. The rollout of some of these technologies has been quick, and departments are beginning to confront the risks of abusing the technology and changing the way laws are enforced. Other Idaho police departments, such as Boise, Nampa, Twin Falls, and Jerome County, use the same Flock camera systems. The Meridian Police Department uses a similar technology for license plate reader cameras.

Such AI tools are quickly becoming a standard part of the policing toolkit. As of 2025, nearly 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies across the country were actively using AI to assist them, according to a report by the National Council of State Legislatures. About 28% of them use Flock, according to reporting by NPR and Flock Safety’s own website.

But the use of AI, Flock cameras in particular, has come under intense criticism because of concerns about privacy and data sharing.

“We are always hesitant to allow people to forfeit their rights to privacy, their right to due process, and any other individual freedoms in the name of ‘community security,’” Rebecca De Léon, communications director for the ACLU of Idaho told the Statesman via email. “But in the case of Flock cameras, it has been proven that their use goes far beyond what initially justified them.”