Flock cameras gifted by Horowitz Foundation, avoiding public oversight

Source: Hacker News

Taxpayers aren’t paying, so there have been few chances for residents to say whether they wanted the controversial surveillance network in the first place.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) quietly entered an agreement in 2023 with Flock Security, an automated license‑plate‑reader (ALPR) company that uses cameras to collect vehicle information and cross‑reference it with police databases.

Unlike many other police departments that fund such cameras with taxpayer dollars, Metro funds the project with donor money funneled into a private foundation. This arrangement allows Metro to avoid soliciting public comment on the surveillance technology—something critics worry could be co‑opted to track undocumented immigrants, political dissidents, abortion seekers, and others.

“It’s a short circuit of the democratic process,” said Jay Stanley, a Washington, D.C.–based lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who works on how technology can infringe on individual privacy and civil liberties, in an interview with The Nevada Independent.

The cameras scan license plates as well as vehicles’ identifying details—make, model, and color—plugging that information into a national database that police can use to locate specific vehicles beyond their own jurisdictions. Flock operates more than 80,000 of these AI‑powered cameras nationwide, and the company’s popularity has exploded in recent years, with police touting it as a tool to solve crime faster and boost public safety.

Although taxpayer dollars fund Flock cameras in other jurisdictions, most of the cameras in the Las Vegas area have been bought with money from the Horowitz Family Foundation, a philanthropy group connected to Las Vegas‑based venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, co‑founder of Andreessen Horowitz.

The Horowitz Family Foundation did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Metro told The Nevada Independent that it operates approximately 200 Flock license‑plate‑reader cameras on city or county infrastructure and shares its Flock data with hundreds of state and local law‑enforcement agencies throughout the country.

Since late 2023, Las Vegas police have made more than 23,000 vehicle searches, according to the website Have I Been Flocked, which compiles public audit logs of Flock data.

Because the cameras were not bought with public funds, Metro does not have to hold public meetings to comment on the technology—something experts say leaves citizens without any input on the policing method.

In other cities, Stanley said Flock is often brought up and discussed during city‑council meetings or other public forums. It’s not required to be on public‑meeting agendas in the Las Vegas area.

“Police departments serve the community and are supposed to make life in the community better. Does the community want this technology imposed on it?” – Jay Stanley

Although Horowitz’s foundation donated additional funds for Flock cameras in October, the donation was not mentioned at the Clark County Commission meeting that month, nor was it discussed at any point in 2025, according to commission‑meeting minutes.

“Where’s the oversight?”

Some municipalities in Clark County—such as the City of Las Vegas—have license‑plate‑reader policies that include a public Flock policy with a dashboard showing:

• How many license plates Flock captured (about 185,000 in the past month in the city)
• How many cameras are in use (22 in Las Vegas)
• How many searches have been done on a monthly basis (five in the past 30 days)

In comparison, Metro’s policy is not publicly available online, though The Indy obtained a copy through a public‑records request.

Flock’s most recent contract with Metro, signed in 2023, stipulates that the company retains all rights in any recordings or data provided by the service and that Flock can use any of the data for “any purpose” at its discretion. The agreement also says that Flock recordings are not stored for longer than 30 days.

Meanwhile, Metro policy says that department members will not seek or retain license‑plate‑reader information about individuals or organizations based solely on citizenship, social views, race, or other classifications protected by law. The policy states that retained ALPR data does not include specific identification of individuals. Misuse of the data will result in disciplinary action up to termination.

But for many—including a former officer who spoke to The Indy on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions—such policies are not enough.

“It’s ripe for misuse,” the officer said, pointing to examples around the country of people using Flock to look for current and former romantic partners and track their movements.

• A police chief in Kansas used Flock to track his ex‑girlfriend, leading to arrests and probation. (See the story here).

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All links are active as of the date of publication.

Privacy Concerns

The Horowitz Foundation donation in October included a software subscription to Flock’s Nova feature, which allows officers to easily access private license‑plate information alongside other personal data—such as Social Security numbers, credit scores, property and occupancy information, as well as emails or social media handles.

Experts say this data could be used to identify undocumented immigrants, political protesters, and people traveling across state lines to obtain abortions.

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said that Flock not only poses a heightened risk for immigrants, but also for anyone engaged in actions deemed politically defiant. He pointed to a case in Texas where police conducted a nationwide search using Flock technology for a woman who self‑induced an abortion.

“This could be ripe for abuse by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), but it could also be ripe for abuse by other government entities,” Haseebullah said.

In 2025, the ACLU pushed back against a measure that would allow local jurisdictions to use automated traffic cameras to crack down on speeding and red‑light crossings, although the bill was never voted on.

Flock has received backlash nationwide for allowing federal agencies such as Customs and Border Patrol to tap into its data. The company has said it does not work with ICE after evidence was found that the agency used Flock data for immigration investigations. Several cities have terminated or modified their Flock agreements after realizing they were inadvertently sharing data with other agencies.

However, though Flock might not want to partner with ICE, it has little choice—Flock is obligated to fulfill subpoenas from ICE and can’t refuse a legal warrant, according to Andrew Ferguson, an attorney and professor researching tech and police surveillance at George Washington University.

Flock’s surveillance cameras are meant to catch crime, though experts say they could deter certain behaviors if citizens are aware they are being watched.

“There’s a chilling effect knowing that your government is essentially tracking you wherever you go,” Ferguson said. “It might be even more chilling if you put cameras in sensitive places, like a medical clinic, a Gambler’s Anonymous meeting, or a church.”

In a city such as Las Vegas, known for drinking, gambling, and a hearty party culture, surveillance is the last thing people are interested in, according to Ferguson.

“Things are happening in Vegas that are not going to stay in Vegas,” Ferguson said. “They’re going to be broadcast through Flock.”

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Public‑Private Partnerships

As recently as October of last year, the Horowitz Family Foundation donated almost $1.9 million for Flock license‑plate readers and another $2.47 million for supporting software for Flock machines, according to the minutes of an LVMPD fiscal affairs committee meeting.

Because the donations aren’t coming directly to Metro, but to the nonprofit LVMPD foundation (also known as “Friends of Metro”), any discussions on the cameras’ use aren’t subject to Nevada’s open‑meeting laws.

The license‑plate readers and their supporting software are not the only gifts that the Horowitz Family Foundation—led by Ben Horowitz’s wife, Felicia Horowitz—has donated to Las Vegas police. The foundation has also gifted drones and Tesla Cybertrucks to the agency.

Proponents have billed the gifts as morale boosters that help the agency stay on the cutting edge without tapping into limited taxpayer dollars. Critics, such as the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Southern Nevada, have suggested that the Cybertrucks show Metro is “prioritizing corporate giveaways.”

Felicia Horowitz said she is focused on “creating the best community in America” in Las Vegas.

According to her bio from a local nonprofit organization that she sits on the board of, part of the mission is combating crime and keeping citizens safe. In a Wall Street Journal article, Felicia Horowitz emphasized how crime and weak policing have hurt Black communities across the country.

“The new policies — defund the police, don’t prosecute crime — are destroying the communities where I grew up,” Felicia Horowitz, who is Black, told the WSJ in 2024.

Felicia Horowitz was raised in Los Angeles, and the Horowitz family relocated to Las Vegas around 2021‑2022 after decades in California.

So far, the foundation has not publicly commented on whether it will continue donating money for Flock services. Some experts think the donations might be a strategy called “penetration pricing,” where a company gives free or reduced products or services in order to hook consumers before charging them.

“There’s no question that there’s a financial interest in them proving that the Flock technology works in Las Vegas so that they can sell it to other places,” said Ferguson.

The former police officer said he was concerned about taxpayers having to cough up funds to continue Flock services if the Horowitz money ran dry.

“Once you start relying on a certain type of policing, it’s going to be hard to switch over, and then who will foot the bill?” the officer said.