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Updated Feb. 24, clarification appended Feb. 20

Milo went missing. 

Yet it wasn鈥檛 the lost puppy that gave people the jitters 鈥� it was the promise behind the story: That a communitywide web of home security systems could transform a neighborhood into a 鈥淪earch Party.鈥�

The Super Bowl commercial against two leading surveillance companies, Amazon, which owns Ring doorbell cameras, and Flock Safety, which makes license plate reader cameras. Within days, the e-commerce giant announced it was ditching a planned partnership with Atlanta-based Flock.

Privacy advocates said the breakup represented a rare, high-profile retreat from the expansion of surveillance-driven policing 鈥� and that school leaders should take note.

鈥淭he fact that Amazon is reconsidering their relationship with Flock should be a very large and glaring sign that schools should also perhaps reconsider that relationship,鈥� said Kristin Woelfel, policy counsel for equity in civic technology at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. 

In an investigation last week, 蜜桃影视 revealed that police nationwide routinely tapped into school district Flock cameras to assist President Donald Trump鈥檚 mass immigration crackdown, which has also led to public outcry and protest over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security鈥檚

Ring鈥檚 planned integration with Flock Safety would have allowed homeowners to share their camera feeds with the police. The company said the collaboration was never launched but it still plans to roll out 鈥淪earch Party鈥� to homeowners, first for 鈥渇inding dogs鈥�

In statements, the two companies described the , with Ring saying it

Some 100 school districts across the country have contracted with Flock, according to government procurement records. Their 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. 

Woelfel鈥檚 warning lands amid of automated license plate readers and their use by federal immigration agents to track down targets. Flock audit logs obtained by 蜜桃影视 and interviews reveal local police departments nationwide are searching school district-run surveillance networks to aid the DHS in immigration enforcement cases. 

The logs were from Texas school districts that contract with Flock and showed that law enforcement agencies far beyond their borders 鈥� including in Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee 鈥� routinely conducted searches on the districts’ campus feeds, tagging reasons such as 鈥淚mmigration (criminal)鈥� and 鈥淚mmigration (civil/administrative).鈥� Multiple law enforcement officials acknowledged the searches were done at the request of federal immigration agents, with one saying the local assist was given without hesitation. 

Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels said the company doesn鈥檛 contract with school districts directly. The company鈥檚 鈥渢erminated integration with Flock鈥� is specific to a tool that allows local police 鈥渢o request video footage from Ring users in a specific area during a defined time period鈥� to help in investigations related to 鈥渁 car theft, a burglary or other local safety concerns.鈥�

Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin said her company was not involved in the 鈥淪earch Party鈥� feature promoted in the Super Bowl ad and its planned Ring collaboration 鈥渉ad nothing to do with any of our school customers.鈥� Those customers rely on the automated license plate readers to navigate parent custody logistics and in parking lots where 鈥渕ost incidents of violence at schools take place.鈥� In December, district s to investigate a rash of car break-ins in school parking lots.

Immigration and Customs enforcement agents have during school pick-up and drop-off to target immigrant families. 

Beilin said she didn鈥檛 know how frequently school-owned Flock networks were being queried on behalf of ICE, but that the company had rolled out that allows customers to disable immigration-related searches on their devices. 

鈥淚f school district police, or, frankly any police, decides that that is against their policy, they can turn that search filter on,鈥� Beilin told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淪o any of those searches would be filtered out.鈥� 

There is no evidence from 蜜桃影视鈥檚 analysis that the Texas school districts use the devices for their own immigration-related investigations, but the audit logs raise questions about how broadly school safety data are being fed into the far-reaching surveillance tool. 

That school Flock cameras are being accessed by out-of-state police officers for immigration enforcement is 鈥渁 really serious privacy issue for children and families鈥� Woelfel said. 

鈥淵ou have to think about what effect it鈥檚 ultimately going to have on the community,鈥� she continued. 鈥淓ven in places without Flock cameras, people are afraid to drop their kids off at school,鈥� because of heightened immigration enforcement and the Trump administration’s policy change that lifted longstanding restrictions against immigration enforcement in or around schools and other 鈥渟ensitive locations.鈥� 

鈥楥an鈥檛 believe we have that here鈥�

For 16-year-old Zachary Schwartz, a high schooler from San Francisco, backlash to the Ring ad validated something he鈥檚 been telling people for months: Flock鈥檚 presence in communities nationwide has grown far too vast and most Americans don鈥檛 even realize it. 

鈥淵ou hear about tracking systems in other countries, like China, which are more authoritarian,鈥� Schwartz said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 like, 鈥榃hoa, I can鈥檛 believe we have that here.鈥� 

Schwartz said he fell down the Flock rabbit hole after watching , which sent him digging into its widespread use in his own city. He learned the San Francisco Police Department shared its feeds with law enforcement officers nationwide, including for immigration enforcement, in apparent . Activists have also elevated concerns about weak cybersecurity safeguards and faulty findings that

Schwartz built a website, , to drive attention to Flock鈥檚 presence. He also circulated posters across San Francisco urging residents to learn about the cameras constantly watching them.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e driving on a major roadway, you鈥檙e being tracked in the city,鈥� Schwartz said. 鈥淚t would be pretty hard to avoid it while going to school if you鈥檙e going by car or by a bus.鈥� 

蜜桃影视 reached out to 30 districts to learn more about how they use Flock and whether they鈥檝e assessed how their data are shared. Few responded and almost all declined to comment. Several, including Indiana鈥檚 Center Grove Community School Corporation, said they ended their contracts with Flock without providing details about why. 

One district that did respond was Minnetonka Public Schools, 12 miles southwest of Minneapolis, where the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deployment of immigration agents last month resulted in the fatal shootings of two citizens, closed Minneapolis Public Schools for two days and forced multiple districts in the Twin Cities area to offer remote learning for students too afraid to come to school.

District spokesperson JacQueline Getty said Minnetonka school officials use Flock license plate readers primarily to ensure people who have been banned from campus don鈥檛 trespass on school property. She didn鈥檛 elaborate on whether district Flock data are shared directly with outside law enforcement agencies or if their data have been leveraged to assist federal immigration agents. 

鈥淲e cooperate with our local law enforcement department when there is a need to do so, such as if our reader pings a stolen vehicle entering our lot,鈥� Getty said in an email. 鈥淥ur primary goal is campus safety, and the district has benefited from identifying people who should not be on district property.鈥�

At Indiana University in Bloomington, in a January protest criticizing the city鈥檚 use of Flock license plate readers. In at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the campus it 鈥渦ses a limited number鈥� of Flock cameras for campus safety but has 鈥渆nabled specific settings within our system to prevent searches related to immigration enforcement.鈥� 

鈥楾he future that we really want?鈥�

The controversy comes on the heels of efforts at Flock to security. Security vendor Raptor Technologies announced last year an initiative to implement Flock cameras into a product designed to enhance safety during afternoon dismissal. 

Raptor Technologies, which counts roughly 40% of U.S. school districts as its customers, offers software that screens school visitors.

鈥淏y working with both schools and local law enforcement, Flock helps create safe corridors for student travel 鈥� whether that鈥檚 monitoring activity along walking routes, at bus stops or on nearby roads,鈥� Flock said in . 

In 2024, Raptor聽suffered a cybersecurity lapse that exposed millions of sensitive records 鈥斅爄ncluding districts鈥� active-shooter plans and students鈥� medical records 鈥斅爐o the internet.

“Raptor Technologies does not share, sell or disclose any data collected on our platform with third parties or government agencies,” a company spokesperson said in a statement after this article was published.

“We do not provide access to our systems or customer records other than as directed by customers or pursuant to a valid government order,” according to the statement. Although Raptor tools integrate with other companies’ security offerings, the spokesperson said it is up to districts to “determine what data, if any, is shared, the scope of what is shared and whether an integration is enabled.”

Schwartz, the San Francisco high schooler, said students learn about mass surveillance at school by reading books like George Orwell鈥檚 classic 1984. Yet when government overreach 鈥渉appens right in front of us,鈥� he said, 鈥渕any people don鈥檛 see it.鈥�

In a place where Bay Area technology companies routinely roll out their latest wares, people are starting to wake up, he said. 

鈥淚t also means that we see the future before it happens sometimes,鈥� Schwartz said, 鈥渁nd we can decide 鈥極h, is this the future that we really want?鈥欌��

Clarification: Flock鈥檚 licensed plate reader cameras were not part of the company鈥檚 since-cancelled integration with Ring. The subhead on this story has been updated to make that distinction clearer.

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