The audit of the Providence Flock network reveals that it is highly active and widely used, with more than 3,338,574 searches conducted between November 2024 and November 2025. Of these, 3,200,080 were from outside of the cities that Providence intentionally shares its data with, according to its Flock transparency portal, meaning that data from Providence cameras about the residents and visitors of Providence was shared more than 3,200,000 times between November 2024 and November 2025 despite assurances that it was not. These searches were from 1,409
jurisdictions and were predominantly from local and regional law enforcement agencies. Nonetheless, there were additionally 6,644 searches by 14 federal jurisdictions, including border patrol. Flock cameras are clustered in diverse neighborhoods where residents are among the city’s
poorest and most vulnerable. Additionally, there is clustering in largely Latino neighborhoods and neighborhoods with many foreign-born residents, suggesting high potential use of Flock data for immigration and deportation purposes as well as racial bias in camera placement. We believe that
Providence’s contract with Flock should be renewed only if safeguards are implemented to ensure privacy rights and to improve public trust: reduced time of data retention; data sharing restricted to those with MOUs; limited uses of Flock data to exclude purposes such as immigration enforcement,
traffic violations, facial recognition, and profit; and stronger oversight with frequent audit reports. We are particularly concerned about the use of ALPRs for immigration and deportation enforcement.
