OKCPD operates 90 Flock surveillance cameras connected to a nationwide network of 40,000+ cameras - with no published access controls, no audit procedures, no discipline standards, and no transparency reporting. Their own memo confirms it.
Flock Safety cameras photograph every vehicle that passes, capturing license plates, vehicle details, and movement patterns. Here's why that matters.
Oklahoma statute 47 O.S. §7-606.1 authorizes ALPR use exclusively for enforcement of the Compulsory Insurance Law. Criminal investigation access requires a warrant, subpoena, or court order. OKCPD uses Flock for stolen vehicles, hot-list matching, and general crime investigation - purposes that appear to exceed what the law allows.
In a March 2026 internal memorandum, OKCPD confirmed in writing: no access control documentation, no prohibited-use policies, no discipline standards, no audit procedures, and no transparency reporting exist for Flock. The only published policy doesn't even cover the Flock system.
The contract costs $270,000 per year from the Police Sales Tax Fund, renewed annually with minimal council scrutiny. Studies - including a peer-reviewed Berkeley analysis - have found ALPRs produce no statistically significant reduction in crime.
OKC's cameras feed into Flock's network of 40,000+ law enforcement cameras across 5,000+ agencies. OKCPD's own published policy states "ALPR data will not be shared as part of a law enforcement information database" - but Flock is exactly that. In Mountain View, CA, Flock enabled nationwide search without police knowledge; ATF and federal agencies accessed local data for 17 months.
Flock's devices have 22 confirmed CVEs in the National Vulnerability Database, run unsupported Android 8 (no security patches since 2021), and can be physically compromised in 30 seconds via a button sequence. Researchers found 60+ cameras streaming live without authentication and 35+ police accounts with stolen passwords. Senator Wyden and Rep. Krishnamoorthi have requested an FTC investigation.
Without discipline standards, nothing prevents misuse: curiosity searches, stalking, political targeting. EFF found Tulsa PD logged at least 38 Flock searches related to protest activity. In Texas, deputies used Flock for an abortion investigation. Flock's own patent (US11416545B1) describes classifying people by race, gender, height, weight, and clothing - directly contradicting their public claim that the system "cannot search for human characteristics."
OKCPD Operations Manual §5-118 states: "ALPR data will not be shared as part of a law enforcement information database." It describes vehicle-mounted mobile units only - officers turning equipment on "during their entire tour of duty." It says nothing about Flock's static, network-connected cameras. The policy that's supposed to govern this system doesn't even describe it.
In February 2026, Flock quietly made 147 changes to their standard contract. They deleted "Flock does not own and shall not sell Customer Data," removed training data guardrails, and added a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free" data license that survives contract termination. They also block Wayback Machine archiving to prevent public tracking of these changes.
“I’m not asking you to take my word for it. I’m asking you to read your own police department’s memo.”- The OKCPD memorandum dated March 10, 2026 confirms, in the department's own words, that no governance framework exists for a 90-camera surveillance system.
Every finding below comes from public records, government documents, and OKCPD's own written responses.
OKCPD has no published records listing who can access Flock, what authorization is required, or what roles are defined. For a system connected to 40,000+ cameras nationwide.
Source: OCPD-2885-2026 Internal Memorandum, Item 3“No audit procedures exist in policies, SOPs, directives, training or guidance for Flock.” Internal guidance requires a case number, but this requirement is informal only - not enforceable policy.
Source: OCPD-2885-2026 Internal Memorandum, Item 5“There is no transparency reporting or internal usage reporting.” The public cannot know how often the system is searched, which agencies query OKC data, or whether data has been shared with federal agencies.
Source: OCPD-2885-2026 Internal Memorandum, Item 6OKCPD admits training materials for Flock exist, but withholds them as “internal/law enforcement use only” without citing any statutory exemption from the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
Source: OCPD-2885-2026 Internal Memorandum, Item 2OKCPD Operations Manual §5-118 covers ALPR but addresses vehicle-mounted mobile units only - referencing "ALPR equipped vehicles" and officers ensuring equipment is "turned on during their entire tour of duty." It says nothing about Flock's static, network-connected camera infrastructure.
Source: OKCPD Operations Manual 6th Edition, Feb 5 2026, pp. 283-284The Flock contract's stated “Permitted Purpose” - general crime awareness, prevention, and prosecution - goes beyond what Oklahoma statute 47 O.S. §7-606.1 authorizes for ALPR technology.
Source: Master Agreement C241032, analyzed against 47 O.S. §7-606.1Section 5-118 states: “ALPR data will not be shared as part of a law enforcement information database.” Flock's nationwide lookup network - used by 5,000+ agencies - is precisely that. OKCPD's published policy directly contradicts how the Flock system operates by design.
Source: OKCPD Operations Manual 6th Edition, §5-118 Data Retention and SharingIn February 2026, Flock made 147 changes to their standard contract: deleting data ownership protections, removing training data guardrails, and adding a perpetual data license that survives contract termination. They also block Internet Archive from caching their terms, preventing public tracking of changes.
Source: DeflockYourCity contract analysis, February 2026