Lee’s Summit police now require any police department that wants access to its Flock automated license plate reader system to sign a memorandum of understanding saying the data won’t be misused.
“A decision was made that we would no longer share data we collect within our city with any other agency that could not guarantee the same level of data protection,” spokesman Sgt. Chris Depue said Tuesday. “We may be a pioneer in this regard.”
Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers have come under scrutiny in communities across the country after reports of misuse by officers. One of the main criticisms of Flock is that it allows police from all over the country to search data anywhere.
“It becomes a system that can track you across the country,” according to Christie Hebert, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which has an entire project dedicated to challenging the use of automatic license plate readers.
Almost 2,700 searches were made of Flock data from Lee’s Summit 55 Flock cameras between January 1 and July 1, 2026, according to a Missouri Sunshine Law request.
It’s unclear from the provided data how many outside agencies searched the Lee’s Summit license plate information.
However, it does show that 89 Lee’s Summit officers queried the data in that six-month period. About 25% of searches were done by just three officers, according to the data.
The most common reason for searching the Flock data was theft. Second was for fugitives and then drugs, the data revealed.
The decision to crack down on who can search Flock data comes at a time citizens have expressed concern about their information.
Parkville, Missouri, just shut off its Flock cameras after two contentious town halls last week. In August, Gardner, Kansas turned off its Flock cameras after residents voiced concerns. Weston, Missouri bought two Flock cameras and then canceled the contract after residents revolted.
Depue said the MOU requirement started about a week ago and covers every law enforcement agency anywhere. “True boilerplate language that would apply whether you're our next-door neighbor or you're six states away,” he said.
He also admits communicating this to law enforcement across the nation will be tricky, but Lee’s Summit is responding to its citizens.
“We need to stop this right now. Our community has said that there's an issue here,” Depue said.
