For thousands of commuting college students, what was once an intimate drive to class has now become a daily journey under the watchful eyes of law enforcement and countless private entities. Following the quiet installation of artificial intelligence-powered Flock Safety cameras, the roads surrounding Las Positas College have become the latest frontline in a larger, countrywide debate: Where is the line between ensuring public safety and violating one’s right to digital privacy?
This technological tug-of-war regarding the use of Flock Safety cameras has escalated into many legal, political and cultural conflicts over recent months.
A landscape bristled with digital checkpoints continues to become a reality for many communities and campuses. A reality now shared by LPC, where a network of Flock Safety devices currently surrounds the campus and tracks all passersby.
The cameras, a specific class of devices referred to as automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, operate by using AI-trained object recognizers to identify, record and note the details of every single passing car. The footage and data are then stored for varying amounts of time inside a cloud-based database, accessible to any agency — private or municipal — that pays for Flock.
A total of 14 known Flock cameras currently operate within a 1.5-mile radius surrounding campus according to DeFlock map, installed by the Livermore Police Department over several years. That’s roughly two cameras per sq.mile around a school where, on average, over 75% of students commuted over the past 5 years, as per census data.
Such a system of indiscriminate monitoring that tracks a large portion of the population without specific suspicion of wrongdoing or individual consent has been considered an instrument of mass surveillance by several civil rights groups.
Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have stated in their press releases that such “unprecedented spying is terrifying” and likely violates constitutional principles.
Flock Safety and supporting agencies however, maintain that their devices are a vital means to capturing objective evidence without compromising privacy, and continue to install their services in schools and cities.
Per internal audits, the Livermore Police Department currently operates 148 ALPRs —75 of which are Flock devices.
When asked about surveillance cameras operated on campus, Campus Safety Supervisor Sean Prather said that current camera systems are separate from LPD’s and Flock, and any data/footage recorded is only available to law enforcement agencies on strict case-related bases.
Yet Flock ALPRs in the vicinity of LPC remain unnerving for some student commuters, such as Renn Ma.
“I don’t like that my data is getting logged for AI use,” Ma said. “Since I have a car, I prefer using it rather than public transportation. I have that privilege to do that, and it does deter me, or give me a weird feeling. Same with all the other AI stuff that’s been happening.”
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TOP PHOTO: There is a Flock camera surveilling drivers on/around Collier Canyon Road just outside of the Las Positas campus. This photo was taken on Sep 8, 2026. (Photo by Sophia Sucato // The Express)
Jo Rojas is the Arts & Entertainment editor for the Express. Follow them on Instagram @itsajobrainer.
