Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants? | Electronic Frontier Foundation

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EFFecting Change: If You Own It, Why Can't You Fix It? on July 23

Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants?

DEEPLINKS BLOG

By Dave Maass<br>June 25, 2026

Are Your Local Police Using Flock Safety ALPRs to Scan for Immigrants?

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When a car passes an automated license plate reader (ALPR), its plate is captured and instantly compared against a list of vehicles that police are actively looking for or that police have identified for real-time surveillance. These are called “hotlists,” and EFF has learned that one used by agencies across the country targets immigrants on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Agencies using Flock Safety ALPR systems commonly allow the plates their cameras collect to be compared against the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) hotlists. These hotlists are broken into "topics," such as "Gang or Suspected Terrorist," "Stolen Vehicle," and "Missing Person."

Flock Safety told EFF via email: "Local agencies add/remove license plates from the NCIC list. The FBI curates the NCIC list, and pushes it out to local agencies. Once the list leaves the FBI, they do not see any agency alerts. They only see when a local agency adds or removes plates from the list."

But one list is different: The "Immigration Violator" hotlist is populated exclusively by ICE, and it is the only agency authorized to enter or maintain records in this system, according to the NCIC operator manual. It includes license plates associated with administrative warrants, which are issued by ICE agents without judicial review. The manual further describes the data:

The Immigration Violator File contains records on criminal aliens who have been deported for drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, or serious violent crimes and on foreign-born individuals who have violated some section of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

And:

If the ICE has reasonable grounds to believe that the subject may be operating a particular vehicle or a vehicle bearing a particular license plate, the vehicle and/or license data may be included in the record.

Buried in the Flock Safety administrative interface, there is a drop-down menu where agencies select which NCIC topics to subscribe to. If Immigration Violator is selected, the local agency will receive an alert that a vehicle ICE is looking for has been sighted. According to Flock Safety, ICE itself does not get an alert, although the local agency may contact ICE to let them know. Many agencies also participate or collaborate with immigration enforcement (through, for example, 287(g) agreements) and may take steps to stop a vehicle based on one of these alerts.

In many places, using ALPRs for immigration enforcement is against city or state law–or at minimum, against agency policy. But using this hotlist is immigration enforcement.

For example, Sparks Police Department's ALPR transparency portal lists immigration enforcement among the "prohibited uses." Yet, records show Sparks utilizes ICE's Immigration Violator hotlist.

Many agencies publicly acknowledge using NCIC hotlists, but don't publish which ones. So, EFF filed public records requests with agencies around the country to figure how to identify at least which agencies may be using the Immigration Violator hotlist. Here are links to the documents from the 13 agencies that have responded so far.

Agencies with the Immigration Violators Hotlist Enabled

Blue Island Police Department, IL

Sparks Police Department, NV

Agencies Using NCIC Hotslists, But Immigration Violators Is Disabled

Baraboo Police Department, WI

Boonsboro Police Department, MD

Elmira Police Department, NY

Franklin Township Police Department, NJ

Medford Police Department, OR

New Braunfels Police Department, TX

Oro Valley Police Department, AZ

Quincy Police Department, MA

Reno Police Department, NV

Roselle Police Department, IL

Sterling Police Department, IL

Knowing whether your agency has this box checked isn't just useful information—it's the...