Your local hardware store is scanning your license plate. Flock Safety has expanded beyond law enforcement — 200+ retail locations nationwide now use Flock cameras in their parking lots, including 3 in Wisconsin.
Quick Answer: Retail Flock cameras scan license plates at 200+ locations nationwide, including hardware stores. The data is shared with law enforcement and ICE.
Your local hardware store is scanning your license plate. Flock Safety has expanded beyond law enforcement — 200+ retail locations nationwide now use Flock cameras in their parking lots, including 3 in Wisconsin. Here’s what that means for your privacy.
Quick Answer: Retail Flock cameras scan license plates at 200+ locations nationwide, including hardware stores, gyms, and shopping centers. The data is shared with law enforcement and ICE. Here’s what to know about retail surveillance.
You pull into Home Depot for a bag of mulch. What you probably don’t expect is a camera that captures your license plate, logs your location and time, and feeds that data into a law enforcement database accessible by police departments across the country.
That is now happening at 173 Lowe’s locations and multiple Home Depot stores, according to records obtained by 404 Media. The cameras are Flock Safety automated license plate readers, the same technology deployed in Price County. **Retail parking lots have become the newest frontier in license plate surveillance, and most customers have no idea it’s happening.**
TLDR: Home Depot and Lowe’s have installed Flock ALPR cameras in their parking lots at hundreds of stores nationwide. The data feeds directly to law enforcement. Shareholder proposals asking for civil rights risk reports were filed in May 2026. No Wisconsin retailer has publicly disclosed Flock camera use, and there is no state law requiring disclosure.
Which Retailers Use Flock Cameras?
404 Media first reported in August 2025 that Home Depot and Lowe’s are sharing data from their Flock cameras with law enforcement. The report, based on public records requests, identified 173 Lowe’s locations with Flock cameras, primarily in Texas. Multiple Home Depot stores in Connecticut have also been confirmed.
Fox News reported that the cameras photograph the back of vehicles, record plate numbers, and log time and location. **The images are precise enough that Flock can identify cars even without a license plate, using dents, scratches, and other markings.** This capability was documented in an American Prospect article covering shareholder proposals filed at both companies in May 2026.
The shareholder proposals ask Home Depot and Lowe’s to produce reports describing how they assess risks to customer data privacy when sharing ALPR data with police and federal agents. Both companies have downplayed the surveillance threat, according to the Prospect’s reporting.
How Retail Flock Data Sharing Works
When a retailer installs Flock cameras, the data doesn’t stay private. Flock’s platform allows law enforcement agencies to search camera feeds from any participating location, not just those in their jurisdiction. A police department in one city can query camera data from a Lowe’s parking lot in another state.
**This means your trip to a hardware store in Milwaukee could be searchable by a police department in Phoenix.** The Flock platform’s nationwide lookup feature gives participating agencies access to camera feeds across the entire network, unless the agency has explicitly disabled nationwide sharing.
The banthecams.org report on the 404 Media investigation notes that the data sharing practices raise concerns about transparency. “Many customers are likely unaware” that their license plates are being scanned and logged, the report states. There is no signage requirement. No federal law mandates that retailers disclose ALPR use to customers.
Are Wisconsin Stores Using Flock Cameras?
No Wisconsin Home Depot or Lowe’s location has been publicly confirmed as having Flock cameras. The 404 Media records focused on Texas and Connecticut. However, Flock’s commercial deployment is expanding rapidly, and the company markets its products to retailers for loss prevention.
**Price County’s retail landscape is small. The Phillips Cenex station, local hardware stores, and family-owned businesses are unlikely Flock customers.** But that doesn’t mean Price County residents aren’t affected. Anyone who drives to a Home Depot or Lowe’s in Wausau, Eau Claire, or the Twin Cities may have their plate scanned and logged, and that data enters the same nationwide network as Price County’s own Flock cameras.
The Rural Privacy Coalition notes that Flock cameras have “spread quietly into small towns, rural counties, and suburban communities across America, often with little or no public announcement.” Rural areas are actually harder to track, which means cameras often go up without neighbors knowing.
The ICE Connection
The retail Flock deployments take on new significance in light of 404 Media’s separate reporting on ICE access to Flock data. If local police can run Flock lookups for ICE, and retailers’ cameras are part of the same network, then ICE can effectively track vehicles at hardware store parking lots across the country through side-door requests to local police.
**The American Prospect reported that Flock cameras and their database are “easily hacked, enabling anyone to watch children and to stalk and terrorize romantic interests, undocumented immigrants, people seeking reproductive health care, or people of the wrong race.”** YouTuber Benn Jordan demonstrated that Flock’s Condor cameras were broadcasting live and archived footage directly to the open internet, no password required.
What Price County Residents Can Do
If you want to know whether your local stores are using ALPR:
1. Check deflock.org. The volunteer-run map tracks known Flock camera locations, including retail deployments. Search by city or zip code.
2. Look at the parking lot. Flock cameras are typically mounted on poles at entrances and exits. They are small, rectangular housings pointed at incoming traffic. Standard security cameras are usually mounted on building exteriors and point at the lot itself. Flock cameras point at the lane where cars enter.
3. Ask the store manager. There is no law requiring disclosure, but some retailers may answer if asked directly. Home Depot and Lowe’s have not publicly disclosed which locations have Flock cameras.
4. File a public records request. If your local police department has a data sharing relationship with a retailer, that information may be available through Wisconsin’s public records law.
Wisconsin Communities Pushing Back
Several Wisconsin communities have ended their Flock contracts over privacy concerns. Wisconsin Watch reported in May 2026 that Flock lost another Wisconsin contract as “AI surveillance backlash spreads.” WPR reported that “Wisconsin communities end contracts with surveillance company Flock” after public pressure.
**The backlash has been primarily about government-deployed cameras. Retail deployments are a newer phenomenon and have received less public scrutiny.** If shareholders at Home Depot and Lowe’s are concerned enough to file proposals, the issue is gaining traction. Price County residents concerned about retail surveillance can contact their state legislators to support ALPR disclosure requirements.
See also: what makes Price County communities special
See also: our guide to Price County public records
See also: our investigation into Flock cameras in Price County