UW-Madison Police operate 8 Flock Safety cameras that capture images of every vehicle entering or leaving campus, over 260,000 vehicles in the last 30 days. You don't have to be suspected of anything.
11,250 : 1 For every vehicle connected to an investigation,
at least 11,250 innocent drivers had their plates captured and stored.
Flock Safety is a private, Atlanta-based surveillance company that sells Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems to law enforcement agencies across the country. UW-Madison Police signed a contract with Flock in 2023.
8 fixed cameras are positioned at entrances and exits to campus. Each camera automatically photographs every passing vehicle, capturing the license plate, vehicle color, make, and body type, whether or not you have anything to do with any investigation.
Your vehicle's image and metadata are uploaded to Flock Safety's cloud servers (Amazon Web Services) in real time. Data is stored for 30 days by default, but if UWPD links your vehicle to an investigation, it can be retained indefinitely as evidence.
By default, UWPD shares data with other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. Flock's network connects thousands of agencies nationwide - a vehicle scanned on campus can be queried by police departments far beyond Madison.
UWPD says the cameras don't use facial recognition, don't monitor in real time, and don't track immigration status. But none of these promises are legally binding, and the underlying infrastructure could easily be repurposed, or expanded.
Even without facial recognition, mass license plate surveillance poses serious civil liberties threats, especially on a university campus.
Traditional surveillance requires individualized suspicion. Flock flips this: every driver is photographed and their data stored - students, faculty, staff, and visitors alike - without any indication of wrongdoing. The ACLU calls this "scanning and storing license plate data from countless drivers every day without their knowledge, consent, or a warrant."
When students and faculty know that attending a rally, organizing a protest, or visiting a controversial speaker requires their vehicle to be logged, it changes behavior. Surveillance of movement is surveillance of association, and association is protected by the First Amendment.
"Once that infrastructure is in place, it can be used for so many things," warned Barrett Elward, co-president of the United Faculty and Academic Staff Union. Today's restrictions are policy, not law - a new administration, a new police chief, or federal pressure could change how this data is used overnight.
Research consistently shows ALPR systems are disproportionately deployed in communities of color, and that automated systems replicate existing biases in policing. Mass data collection creates the foundation for discriminatory enforcement patterns.
Flock operates a network of thousands of agencies. A plate captured on University Avenue can be queried by departments across Wisconsin and potentially beyond. UWPD's stated restrictions on immigration enforcement are self-imposed settings, not technical blocks, and could be changed.
Your vehicle data isn't held by UW-Madison, it's held by Flock Safety, a private for-profit company. That means it's subject to Flock's own privacy practices, data breach risks, business decisions, and potential sale or acquisition. You have no direct recourse with a private vendor.
When UWPD deploys Flock on campus, they don't just give themselves access to your data - they plug into a statewide and potentially national surveillance network.
UWPD says data is shared "by default" with other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. That's not a small group - Wisconsin has over 400 law enforcement agencies, including municipal police, county sheriffs, and state-level agencies. Any of them authorized on Flock's network can query a plate captured on Lakeshore Path or University Avenue without ever contacting UWPD.
When another department queries a plate from a UW Flock camera, they receive the image, timestamp, and location. What they do with that information is governed by their policies - not UWPD's. UWPD's stated restrictions on immigration enforcement, for example, only bind UWPD personnel. Another agency querying the same data faces no such restriction.
Flock's transparency portal shows the number of agencies that have accessed UWPD's data, but not which agencies. The public has no way of knowing which departments are routinely querying plates captured on campus. This lack of transparency makes meaningful oversight impossible.
Broad access to location history creates opportunities for misuse that go well beyond any stated law enforcement purpose. A plate linked to a domestic violence survivor's new address. An officer tracking an ex-partner's movements. A department using campus data to build a profile on a political activist. These aren't hypotheticals - ALPR abuse by individual officers has been documented in departments across the country.
Flock connects agencies across the country. Departments outside Wisconsin may be able to query UW data depending on sharing agreements UWPD has entered into - agreements that have not been made fully public. A plate scanned leaving a protest on Bascom Hill could be visible to agencies in other states.
UWPD has configured settings to prevent direct immigration enforcement searches. But there is nothing preventing ICE or CBP from requesting data through a Wisconsin agency that does not have those restrictions, or from obtaining Flock data through a federal legal process. Self-imposed settings are not the same as a legal firewall.
UWPD has been proactive in defending Flock cameras. Here's a closer look at their claims.
True, but 180,000 vehicles were scanned to generate those 16 searches. That means 99.991% of people photographed had nothing to do with any investigation. The low search count doesn't mean low surveillance - it means the vast majority of surveillance is of innocent people.
Only if UWPD doesn't tie it to an investigation. Once data is flagged as evidence, it can be retained indefinitely. And "30 days" still means your movements are logged for a full month - enough time to construct detailed patterns of behavior.
Correct, but a license plate is effectively a unique identifier for a person. Knowing your plate was at a particular location at a particular time is functionally equivalent to knowing you were there. The absence of facial recognition doesn't mean anonymity.
UWPD says it has configured system settings to prevent ICE-related searches. But these are administrative settings, not technical or legal safeguards. They can be changed, and there is no independent audit confirming they haven't been. Federal agencies can also apply independent legal pressure to access Flock's database.
Internal auditing is valuable, but it's internal. UWPD audits UWPD. There is no independent oversight body reviewing these searches. Policies that rely solely on self-policing are policies in name only.
Opposition to Flock cameras at UW-Madison is growing across faculty, academic staff, and neighboring communities.
"Once that infrastructure is in place, it can be used for so many things."
The United Faculty and Academic Staff union publicly called for the removal of Flock cameras, citing concerns about the potential for mission creep and inequitable impacts on campus communities.
Voted to approve a formal resolution opposing the cameras.
In early 2026, the Academic Staff Council passed a resolution calling on university administration to reconsider the Flock camera program. While advisory, it represents a formal institutional voice against the surveillance system.
Declined to renew its Flock Safety contract.
The City of Verona - a neighbor to Madison - chose not to renew its Flock contract after reviewing privacy concerns. This shows that communities can push back and win, even after systems are in place.
"Scans and stores license plate data from countless drivers every day without their knowledge, consent, or a warrant."
The American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns about Flock's deployment nationwide, including at UW-Madison, highlighting the systemic civil liberties implications of mass ALPR programs.
The following documents were obtained through public records requests. We believe the public has a right to know how surveillance infrastructure is governed and funded on a public university campus.
UWPD's internal policy governing how officers may access and query Flock data, including authorized use cases and prohibited searches.
Obtained via records requestThe full contract between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Flock Safety, including pricing, terms, data provisions, and renewal conditions.
Obtained via records requestFlock's self-reported portal showing UWPD search counts, camera totals, and agency access. Data is self-reported and not independently verified.
Live dataHave I Been Flocked? is an independent tool that lets you check Flock Safety audit logs to see if your license plate has been queried by law enforcement.
Third-party toolThe Faculty Union and Academic Staff Council have already spoken. Now it's time for students, staff, and the Madison community to demand that university leadership listen.
Email UW-Madison's Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration - the offices responsible for the Flock contract - and demand a public review of the program.
Email the ChancellorFaculty Senate, Academic Staff Assembly, and Student Government meetings are open to the public. Showing up and speaking during public comment makes a difference.
UW Faculty Senate →Connect with the United Faculty and Academic Staff union and other campus organizations already working on this issue. Collective action is what creates change.
info@DeFlockUW.comShare this site. Talk to your classmates, colleagues, and neighbors. The first step toward ending a surveillance program is making sure people know it exists.