社区黑料

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Police departments across the U.S. are quietly leveraging school district security cameras to assist President Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement campaign, an investigation by 社区黑料 reveals. 

Hundreds of thousands of audit logs show police are searching a national database of automated license plate reader data, including from school cameras, for immigration-related investigations.

The audit logs originate from Texas school districts that contract with Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that manufactures artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers and other surveillance technology. Flock鈥檚 cameras are designed to capture license plate numbers, timestamps and other identifying details, which are uploaded to a cloud server. Flock customers, including schools, can decide whether to share their information with other police agencies in the company鈥檚 national network. 

Multiple law enforcement leaders acknowledged they conducted the searches in the audit logs to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security enforce federal immigration laws, with one saying the local assist was given without hesitation. The Trump administration鈥檚 aggressive DHS crackdown, which , has had a significant impact on schools. 

Educators, parents and students have been swept up, with immigrant families being targeted during . School parking lots are one place the cameras at the center of these searches can be found, along with other locations in the wider community, such as mounted on utility poles at intersections or along busy commercial streets.

The data raises questions about the degree to which campus surveillance technology intended for student safety is being repurposed to support immigration enforcement, whether school districts understand how broadly their data is being shared with federal agents and if meaningful guardrails exist to prevent misuse. 

鈥淭his just really underscores how far-reaching these systems can be,鈥� said Phil Neff, research coordinator at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. Out-of-state law enforcement agencies conducting searches that are unrelated to campus safety but include school district security cameras 鈥渞eally strains any sense of the appropriate use of this technology.鈥�

Flock devices have been installed by more than 100 public school systems nationally, government procurement records show, and audit logs from six Texas school districts show campus camera feeds are captured in a national database that police agencies across the country can access. School district Flock cameras are queried far more often by out-of-state police officers than by the districts themselves, according to the records.

School police officers use Flock cameras to investigate 鈥渞oad rage,鈥� 鈥渟peeding on campus,鈥� 鈥渧andalism鈥� and 鈥渃riminal mischief,鈥� records show. There is no evidence school districts themselves use the devices for immigration-related purposes 鈥� or that they鈥檙e aware other agencies do so. 

and previously revealed that police agencies nationwide were tapping into Flock camera feeds to help federal immigration officials track targets. In some cases, local law enforcement agencies enabled direct sharing of their networks with U.S. Border Patrol. 

Immigration officials鈥� unprecedented use of surveillance tactics to carry out their controversial mission has . That school district cameras are part of that dragnet has not been previously reported. 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the revelation an 鈥渆gregious end run around the Constitution鈥� that will add to the pressure on Congress to rein in U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. By accessing campus feeds, she said, immigration authorities are violating the rights of students, parents and educators 鈥渢o be free from unreasonable search and seizure.鈥� 

The teachers union in September after it ended a longstanding policy against conducting immigration enforcement actions in and around  

鈥淪chools are sacred spaces 鈥� and ICE knows it needs a judicial warrant to access them,鈥� Weingarten said in a statement. The teachers union filed its lawsuit, she said, 鈥渟o schools remain safe and welcoming places, not targets for warrantless surveillance and militarized raids.鈥�

鈥�The scale of it is phenomenal鈥�

At the Huffman Independent School District northeast of Houston, records reveal it was the campus police chief鈥檚 administrative assistant who granted U.S. Border Patrol access to district Flock Safety license plate readers in May.  

Police departments nationwide also routinely tapped into the eight Flock cameras installed at the 30,000-student Alvin Independent School District south of Houston. Over a one-month period from December 2025 through early January, more than 3,100 police agencies conducted more than 733,000 searches on the district鈥檚 cameras, 社区黑料鈥檚 analysis of public records revealed. Of those, immigration-related reasons were cited 620 times by 30 law enforcement agencies including ones in Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee. 

Flock offers a list of standardized reasons that agencies must choose from when running a search. For the Alvin school district鈥檚 cameras, immigration-related reasons identified by 社区黑料 include 鈥淚mmigration (civil/administrative)鈥� and 鈥淚mmigration (criminal).鈥� 

The data put into focus the scale of digital surveillance at school districts nationally and 鈥渏ust how dangerous these tools are,鈥� said Ed Vogel, a researcher and organizer with The NOTICE Coalition: No Tech Criminalization in Education.

鈥淭he scale of it is phenomenal, and it鈥檚 something that I think is difficult for individual people in their cities, towns and communities to fully appreciate,鈥� said Vogel, who鈥檚 also with the surveillance-monitoring Lucy Parsons Labs in Chicago. 

The Flock camera audit logs and other public records about their use by school districts were provided exclusively to 社区黑料 by The NOTICE Coalition, a national network of researchers and advocates seeking to end mass youth surveillance. 社区黑料 also filed public records requests to obtain information on schools鈥� use of Flock cameras and conducted an analysis to reveal the extent of the immigration-related searches. Those findings were shared with the law enforcement agencies and school districts mentioned in this story. 

Three of the 10 agencies that conducted the most immigration-related searches in the Alvin school district logs participate in the 287(g) program, which deputizes local officers to perform certain immigration enforcement functions and has also become a point of controversy. The program has during Trump鈥檚 second term.

Alvin school district Police Chief Michael Putnal directed all questions to district spokesperson Renae Rives, who provided public records to 社区黑料 but did not acknowledge multiple requests for comment. 

Amanda Fortenberry, the spokesperson for the Huffman school district, said in an email the district is 鈥渞eviewing the matters you referenced,鈥� but declined to comment further.

Flock Safety, which across 7,000 networks nationally, didn鈥檛 respond to 社区黑料鈥檚 requests for comment, nor did the Department of Homeland Security.

鈥榃e will assist them 鈥� no questions asked鈥�

Camera settings information obtained by 社区黑料 through public records requests suggests that Alvin school district police officers are unable to search their own devices for immigration-related purposes. But the school system allows such queries routinely from out-of-state police officers, audit logs reveal. 

Flock searches for civil immigration reasons that appeared in the Alvin school logs, such as trying to locate someone who is unlawfully present in the U.S., were more than two times more frequent than those conducted for investigations involving immigrants suspected or convicted of committing a crime. 

Also included among the reasons given for immigration-related searches are 鈥淚.C.E.,鈥� in reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 鈥淓RO proactive crim case research,鈥� an apparent reference to ICE鈥檚 Enforcement and Removal Operations division and 鈥淐BP Investigation,鈥� an apparent reference to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In Carrollton, Georgia, officers routinely use Flock鈥檚 nationwide lookup to track suspects outside their jurisdiction, Lt. Blake Hitchcock said in an interview. Immigration-related searches that appear in the Alvin school district鈥檚 audit log by the Carrollton Police Department were conducted to assist federal agents at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Hitchcock said. He declined to elaborate on specifics.

Federal agents 鈥渨ere working directly鈥� with a Carrollton police officer who had access to the Flock cameras 鈥渁nd they asked him to run it and they did,鈥� Hitchcock said. If federal agents ask his office to help them with an immigration case, Hitchcock said, 鈥渨e will assist them 鈥� no questions asked.鈥�

Flock searches are typically broad national queries, and officers do not select individual cameras, he explained. Instead, with each search request, the system automatically checks every camera that Flock customers share with the nationwide database, including those operated by school districts.

Because a school district is part of the national lookup, Hitchcock said, its cameras will be searched any time another participating agency conducts a nationwide inquiry. He said Flock’s nationwide search is helpful to track people who 鈥済o from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to commit crimes.鈥� He pointed to in 2020 when Carrollton officers used Flock cameras to rescue a 1-year-old who was kidnapped at gunpoint some 60 miles away. 

In Galveston, Texas, Constable Justin West confirmed that immigration-related searches that appeared in the Alvin school district鈥檚 audit logs from his department were tied to the county鈥檚 participation in the federal 287(g) program.

County deputies with federal immigration enforcement powers 鈥渉ave been working on arresting targeted criminal illegal aliens,鈥� West wrote in an email, and use Flock cameras 鈥渢o determine locations and travel patterns of the illegal aliens being sought.鈥� 

Galveston deputies鈥� Flock searches that appeared in the Alvin school district audit logs led to several arrests, West said, while several of the investigations remain ongoing. Flock logs show the Galveston County searches were conducted for both criminal and civil immigration investigations. 

While the Trump administration maintains its immigration crackdown centers on removing dangerous criminals, surged to 43% in January. and immigrants with no pending civil immigration actions against them have similarly been detained. 

Other agencies that participate in the 287(g) program that were heavily represented in the Alvin ISD logs include the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, each of which conducted more than 60 immigration-related searches that queried the school district鈥檚 cameras in the one-month period. 

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were among four agencies that did not respond to 社区黑料’s inquiries about their searches. The other two were the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio. 

In Mesquite, Texas, searches labeled 鈥淚mmigration (criminal)鈥� were 鈥渃onducted as part of an investigation to locate a suspect wanted on felony criminal charges,鈥� Lt. Curtis Phillip said in an email. While the suspect 鈥渨as believed to be unlawfully present in the United States,鈥� Phillip said his department doesn鈥檛 use Flock cameras 鈥渇or the purpose of enforcing federal civil immigration law.鈥�

鈥淲hen a search is conducted across the shared network, the activity may appear in the audit records of all participating system owners, even when the investigation itself is unrelated to schools or school-based activity,鈥� Phillip said. 鈥淭here is no efficient mechanism to exclude specific entities, such as school districts, from those searches.鈥�

In Grant County, Indiana, 238 immigration-related searches included in the Alvin ISD audit logs were conducted 鈥渂y one of our deputies鈥� as part of 鈥渁 confidential investigation,鈥� Jay Kay, chief deputy of the county sheriff鈥檚 office, said in an email. He didn鈥檛 elaborate further. The reason given for the search in the Flock audit log was 鈥淚mmigration (civil/administrative) – Test.鈥� 

It鈥檚 not clear whether every search tagged as immigration-related necessarily was. John Samples, captain of the Little Elm, Texas, police department, said a detective selected 鈥渋mmigration鈥� as a search reason while assisting the Department of Homeland Security on a sex crimes investigation and a separate terrorism-related case. That word choice, Samples said, was 鈥渘ot the best course of action鈥� and will be 鈥渃orrected on our end.鈥�  

The police department in Texas City, Texas, denied it used the system to enforce federal immigration laws. While the agency monitors 鈥渟everal thousand Flock Cameras across the United States,鈥� Captain Brandon Shives said his department’s searches in the Alvin ISD logs should not have been categorized as immigration-related and that it was the result of a “clerical error.鈥�

鈥榊our community and beyond鈥�

Flock Safety has repeatedly stated that it does not provide the Department of Homeland Security with direct access to its cameras and that all data-sharing decisions are made by local customers, including school districts. 

鈥淚CE cannot directly access Flock cameras or data,鈥� the company . 鈥淟ocal public safety agencies sometimes collaborate with federal partners on serious crimes such as human trafficking, child exploitation or multi-jurisdictional violent crime,鈥� but decisions about 鈥渉ow data is shared are made by the customer that owns the data, not by Flock.鈥�

The company acknowledged in August it ran pilot programs with the DHS to assist federal human trafficking and fentanyl distribution investigations but that 鈥渁ll ongoing federal pilots have been paused鈥� after the initiative faced scrutiny and legal pushback.

鈥淵ou know how maybe your grandparents approve every friend request they get on Facebook? It鈥檚 like that. It鈥檚 always been like that.鈥�

Dave Maass, investigations director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Public records provided by the Alvin school district, which began purchasing Flock cameras in 2023 and has since spent more than $50,000 on its eight devices, include Flock marketing materials that tout the ability to share data with other police agencies. 

鈥淣ot only do we place cameras where you need them,鈥� the document notes, 鈥渨e offer access to available cameras in your community and beyond your jurisdiction.鈥�

In fact, nationwide sharing is a staple of Flock鈥檚 business model, said Dave Maass, director of investigations at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. Maass has spent the last decade researching how police use automated license plate readers like Flock and, in at least one case last year, in Texas, where the procedure is illegal. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that鈥檚 a selling point for them,鈥� Maass said, adding that his research has shown that police agencies agree to provide outside officers access to their Flock data with little deliberation. 

鈥淵ou know how maybe your grandparents approve every friend request they get on Facebook?鈥� Maass said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like that. It鈥檚 always been like that. You鈥檒l have an agency that will request access to other places and other places will just not even question it. They鈥檒l just hit 鈥榮ure, approve.鈥欌��

鈥楢 unique level of responsibility to protect their students鈥�

Flock Safety provides audit logs that allow law enforcement customers to see how their automated license plate reader cameras are being used. The reports 鈥渟upport accountability and public trust by making usage patterns visible and reviewable,鈥� the company said in the recent blog post. 

None of the law enforcement officials contacted by 社区黑料 said they used the audit logs to ensure people with access to their data queried the information for legitimate and legal purposes. Given the overwhelming volume of law enforcement searches that are included in the Alvin school district audit logs in just a month, Maass said, such reviews would be practically impossible.

Adam Wandt, an attorney and associate professor at New York City鈥檚 John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said license plate readers can be invaluable tools for solving serious crimes and finding missing persons. 

But he also acknowledged the devices present significant privacy concerns and questioned whether the broad sharing of school-controlled camera data violates federal student privacy rules. The revelation that school-owned Flock cameras are being queried for immigration enforcement purposes, he said, 鈥渨ill cause significant discussions to be had in the near future within many school districts鈥� that contract with the company. 

鈥淪chool districts are in a unique position, they have a unique level of responsibility to protect their students in specific ways,鈥� including their privacy, Wandt said.

Vogel of the NOTICE Coalition said students and parents should demand transparency from their school districts about whether they employ Flock license plate readers and whether the data from those cameras are being fed to immigration agents. 

鈥淭hese are just tools, and whoever has control over them gets to define how they’re used,鈥� Vogel said. 鈥淚 have a feeling that immigration enforcement was not one of the reasons that was discussed when they said, 鈥榃e need to get a contract with Flock Safety.鈥欌��

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