Has Lakewood's Flock Data Been Subject to Federal Searches?

With neighbors like these...

Flock Safety's data free-for-all has attracted federal law enforcement looking for quick, warrant-free surveillance like moths to a flame. Denver, Colorado's Flock contract termination was catalyzed by the news that neighboring Loveland PD allowed an unidentified ATF agent free access to their Flock account, who then ran searches on behalf of ICE. Towns across Illinois have moved to end their contracts when it came to light Flock had quietly given CBP access to local data in the state, breaking state law. The prospect of federal agents using Flock's system to bypass accountability is very real, but has it affected Lakewood yet?

Lakewood's contract with Flock includes a feature called Direct Access as part of the FlockOS "Essentials" package. Direct Access allows Flock's clients to passively share data to and from approved agencies. Its line in the document is followed by the words "surrounding jurisdiction." It's unclear if this is a suggestion on Flock's part or if this is the scope Lakewood PD themselves defined. Conservatively, this could mean fellow Cuyahoga county departments, including Parma, OH. Parma currently shares their Flock data with Lakewood, making it reasonable to assume Lakewood returns the favor. It's also worth noting Parma also shares with a staggering 1828 agencies in total. Look at that map!

Here's the kicker. Parma ran two searches on behalf of CBP in September 2025. One for their own 12 cameras, and another for over 16,000 other cameras. Were Lakewood's cameras part of that search? Possibly. Parma PD may have received a warrant from CBP, but did Lakewood? Or anybody else? Probably not. This goes to show that as long as Flock's in town, it doesn't matter if Lakewood Police says they won't assist in immigration enforcement. ICE will just go down the street to the next PD and ask nicely for our data.

287(g) Program

ICE's 287(g) program allows local police to act as an arm of federal immigration enforcement, augmenting ICE's already extremely bloated operation. But don't worry: Local cops will receive training from the infamously under-trained ICE before being granted sweeping authority to perform tasks once reserved to federal agents.

Notable 287(g) participants in NE Ohio include the sheriff's offices of Portage County and Lake County, the latter of which is absolutely crawling with Flock cameras. While a conservative estimate of what "surrounding jurisdiction" means for Lakewood may not include Lake County, any wider estimate certainly could. The audit logs available for Lake County SO do not include any mention of "ICE," "immigration," or "CBP" but the logs are also heavily redacted. However, it is not unreasonable to assume Lake County SO would use the tools available to it to perform immigration enforcement under 287(g), and thus any Flock cameras shared with them. Even a slightly less conservative estimate of the breadth of Lakewood's data sharing could include us in their searches.

Sources

All of the information in this article was gathered using HaveIBeenFlocked.com, a site that aggregates data retrieved from public records requests regarding Flock made across the country, and EyesOnFlock.com, an aggregate of data from Flock's "transparency portals." Both are extremely powerful tools, and we encourage you explore them for yourself.