LPR Policy

Flock Safety License Plate Reader Usage and Privacy Policy

What is it: License Plate Readers (LPR) capture and store digital images of license plates and vehicles, and use character recognition to identify and store plate characters. The system creates a searchable computerized database, segmented by customer, resulting from the Flock Safety LPR cameras in use by Flock Safety customers. The LPR system data includes license plate number, vehicle image, and vehicle characteristics as well the date, time and location when the image was collected.

Purpose: Identification of vehicles entering, exiting, and traveling within areas of interest of Flock Safety customers to enhance security and safety of those areas.

Training: LPR users will receive initial training from Flock Safety on the procedure and proper use of the system prior to being granted access to the LPR system.

Access: Each Flock Safety customer will designate one or more “administrators” who are the custodians and head administrators of the LPR systems and its operation. Each customer’s data is only accessible to the administrator(s) and/or designees of that customer.

All logins and queries will be stored and monitored including:

  • Username
  • Date
  • Time
  • Purpose of query
  • License plate and other elements used to query the system

This data will be stored in the Flock Safety system to facilitate audits conducted according to the policies of each Flock Safety customer, in order to ensure access was made by authorized persons for legitimate purposes.

Information Collected: Information collected by the LPR system is as follows:

  • License plate image 
  • Vehicle image 
  • Vehicle characteristics
  • License plate number
  • License plate state
  • Date
  • Time
  • Location

Security: We use administrative, operational, technical, and physical safeguards to protect LPR information from unauthorized access, use, destruction, modification, or disclosure.

Administrative: Username and password protected access to the LPR system. Monitoring and auditing usage of database.

Operational: Training and proper use and secure practices when using LPR and its database.

Technical: All information is encrypted in transit from camera to cloud storage and encrypted at rest in the cloud.

Physical: Multi factor secured VPN access to database, and secure off-site database.

In the very unlikely event of an information breach, all individuals who are believed to be affected or have their personal identifying information compromised will be notified by Davis Lukens (CPO, Flock Safety).

Quality Assurance: LPR is automated so the license plate images and details of collection are included in the system without review. Although infrequent, license plate translation may be incomplete or inaccurate. Users will confirm the computer translation prior to taking any action based on LPR results.

Flock Safety will store the data (data hosting) and ensure proper maintenance and security of data stored in their cloud-based system. 

Ownership and Release of LPR Data: Information gathered or collected and records retained by the Flock Safety system on behalf of Flock Safety Customers is owned solely by the Customer. This data will not be:

  • Sold, published, exchanged, or disclosed for commercial purposes.
  • Disclosed or published without authorization.
  • Disseminated to persons not authorized to access or use the information.

However, Flock may access, use, preserve and/or disclose the Footage to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or third parties, if legally required to do so or if Flock has a good faith belief that such access, use, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with a legal process or request; (b) enforce this Agreement, including investigation of any potential violation thereof; (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address security, fraud or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property or safety of Flock, its users, a third party, or the public as required or permitted by law, including responding to an emergency situation.

Data Retention: LPR data will be stored in the system and then hard deleted on a rolling 30 day basis. This is Flock Safety’s default retention schedule; it may be increased or decreased on a case by case basis if a different schedule is required by a jurisdiction or policy of a customer. 

Privacy: This policy governs the License Plate Recognition System provided by Flock Safety, and applies to our employees, customers, and camera and data hosting affiliates.

The images stored in the system are collected from areas visible to the public where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.