Campaign - Get The Flock Out
GET THE FLOCK OUT OF COLUMBIA COUNTY!
The Sheriff's Office spent over $100,000 to put license-plate cameras on our roads and quietly hand the data
to a national network — one that ICE uses to track immigrants. We're asking you to sign on and demand it stop!
| Automated license-plate cameras installed | 11 |
| Spent on camera equipment, undisclosed | $36K |
| Paid yearly for Flock software | $60K |
| Tracking residents' movements since | 2024 |
We all deserve to drive to work, to school, and to the doctor without our own government logging every trip. Read on to learn what the Sheriff's Office did — and how to join your neighbors taking action.
What's Happening
Big tech companies are teaming up with police agencies to track our movements with AI surveillance. News reports have shown ICE and bad actors in law enforcement using this technology to stalk women, target people for their political speech, and go after people because of their immigration status. Because of ICE, parents are afraid to go to work or the doctor, and children are scared to go to school.
At the August 18, 2026 Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee meeting, it came out that the Sheriff's Department had secretly procured roughly $36,000 in camera equipment, on top of a $60,000-a-year Flock software subscription — and had been surveilling everyone's movement since 2024. The same committee had denied a request for these cameras back in 2023.
At least 11 Automated License Plate Readers now photograph every car that passes, feeding the date, time, location, make, model, color, and identifying features into a shared, searchable national database — detailed enough to build a heat map of everywhere a person travels.
In Their Own Words
In response to community outcry, the Sheriff's Office has since published its own page
on Flock's website — which raises further questions about how the technology is being used.
The Numbers The Sheriffs Did Not Share
11
ALPR cameras installed county wide
$36,000
Spent on equipment without disclosure
$60,000
paid every year for Flock's software
2023
year the same committee denied this request
Where The Data Actually Goes
Despite the Sheriff's Office's stated policy against cooperating with ICE, data collected by its Flock cameras is shared with the FBI's National Crime Information Center — which shares it with ICE to target immigrants in our region. It can also reach other local agencies, including the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office, whose employees have been officially deputized as ICE agents.
Flock technology further singles out vehicles on the NCIC "hotlist," which includes immigration targets — and is riddled with errors that have gotten everyday people tracked across state lines and arrested over administrative mistakes.
We, the undersigned, demand:
1. End the Flock contract, now.
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office immediately ends its contract with Flock, uninstalls the cameras, and stops using ALPR technology for mass surveillance.
2. Investigate, and defund
The Board of Supervisors investigates the Sheriff's Office's use of Flock and declines to fund it going forward.
3. Legislate against ALPRs county-wide
Local governments — county, village, town, and city — pass comprehensive legislation prohibiting the use of Flock and other automated license-plate readers.
In The News