Hidden in the Flock

August 4, 2026

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Flock Automated License Plate readers have been increasingly in the news recently, as problems with the surveillance system have come to light. Many communities have begun to re-think their use of Flock. Los Angeles PD is one large agency that has decided to revisit their use, and has put renewing their subscription on hold for now. Here are my thoughts on Flock and other similar license plate reader operations.

In a perfect world, computer-based information systems like Flock would be a powerful tool for law enforcement. Put in a license plate number, or a vehicle description, and given enough cameras in the system, pinpoint where a stolen car went (or is), find a missing elderly person who drove off and has become confused on how to get home, or a myriad of other scenarios that might benefit from accessing such a database.

The problem is, we don’t live in a perfect world.

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The Final Flock – and the answer is: “NO”

August 3, 2026

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It started April 24, 2026. I filed a public records request for information on the Flock Automated License Plate Reader system the City of Visalia was utilizing. Today, August 3, 2026, I got the final response. Basically, “NO”. The only thing they sent me that was not readily available on the Visalia Police Department Flock Transparency page was a list of “audits”, reporting which agencies had access to Visalia’s Flock network. It was in the tens of thousands of PDF pages. What that revealed is a whole blog post in itself, perhaps at a later date. (I did not see any evidence in those pages of any non-California agencies accessing Visalia Police Department’s database, such as ICE or Homeland Security. There’s a loop-hole about that, however.)

2026.08.03 RB Ltr to J. Reeves (final)Download

The only thing they were willing to tell me about my vehicle being identified, cataloged, and stored in the Flock database was that they didn’t have any record of Visalia PD checking for my plate. I suppose that’s good. Of course, it doesn’t mean that they haven’t, after my request.

Here are the blog posts I’ve made during this investigation:

  1. “What the Flock?” My first notice of the Flock cameras in Visalia.
  2. “Well, Flock Me!” Stories about agencies cancelling their Flock contracts due to violations of state law by Flock.
  3. “More Flock, More Fun” Another blogger runs the stuff I’ve done through an AI for analysis.
  4. “Flock You Later” The Police Department opts to take their allowed 14 day extension to respond to my request.
  5. “Flock the Lawyers” The Police Department hands my request off to the City’s lawyers. That’s seldom a good sign.
  6. “Flock Me A Little Bit” They send me the list of which agencies can access VPD Flock data, and want me to prove the license plate I asked about is mine.
  7. “Tick Tock Tick Flock” The lawyers dump a huge file on me, with audit logs of agencies that accessed Visalia’s Flock data. Want to know the biggest user, by far? California Highway Patrol. They routinely check thousands of camera files.

So they’ve decided “…data is exempt from public disclosure under the public records act balancing test because the public interest in preventing disclosure clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure…” and “Visalia PD’s policy “Because such data may contain confidential information, it is not open to public view.” (Policy 428.2.)”

They took 14 weeks to determine they wouldn’t give me data on myself. Due diligence, or deliberate delay?

This story is not over.

Image by Gemini AI

2FAG6OTS – Redwood High School – Visalia Unified School District

August 1, 2026

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How the Redwood High School Senior Picture Event Became An International News Story, And How The Visalia Unified School District Responded.

Thursday, February 12, 2026, was Senior class picture day at Redwood High School, in Visalia. An incident at that photo shoot would blow up social media, and garner world-wide attention. As members of the senior class were arranging themselves on bleachers for a panorama photo, a group of ASB members were on the side of the gym, getting ready to take their place on the front two rows, dressed in white T-shirts with letters printed on them, to spell out “ALWAYS LEGIT CLASS OF 2026”.

Unfortunately, about ten students took the opportunity to spell out something else, while the adults in the room were distracted. They arranged themselves to spell out the homophobic slur, “2FAG6OTS”, and quickly posted them to social media. The resulting storm hit almost immediately.

The following post details the events as they occurred, based on the information provided to me by Visalia Unified School District after a public records request made on April 17, 2026. After waiting several months for the information, I received the final document dump on July 27, 2026. There are many records not released due to confidentiality laws (which is completely understandable) and “attorney work product privilege”. This blog is based on the released documents, and therefore will not reflect all of the relevant information regarding the incident. This, however, is what we have.

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