# Flock Safety plans layoffs as backlash mounts

> The license plate reader company faces 18 percent workforce cuts as opposition to its surveillance cameras grows across the political spectrum.
- Title: Flock Safety plans layoffs as backlash mounts · Engadget
- Summary: The license plate reader company faces 18 percent workforce cuts as opposition to its surveillance cameras grows across the political spectrum. Flock Safety…
- Keywords: flock safety, license plate readers, ai surveillance, layoffs, police technology, privacy concerns, technology, Flock, Safety, plans, backlash, mounts
- Source: Engadget — https://engadget.com/2282823/flock-safety-reportedly-planning-major-layoffs
- Author: Max Miller
- Published: 2026-10-09T21:16:48+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: flock safety, license plate readers, ai surveillance, layoffs, police technology, privacy concerns, technology
## Flock Safety plans major cuts
Flock Safety is laying off eighteen percent of its workforce, affecting two hundred seventy employees, with cuts taking effect at the end of October according to sources who spoke with Reuters.
## Bipartisan backlash against cameras
Flock cameras have been banned from Florida highways, cut off from Texas state funding, and rejected by Los Angeles Police Department.Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott and Democrat Josh Shapiro have all opposed the technology.

> I don't want to have this become a surveillance state.
## Morale crisis at the company
Three weeks ago WIRED reported Flock had begun an employee buyout program with generous severance packages as workforce discontent mounted. The company currently employs about one thousand five hundred workers.
## Key takeaway

Flock Safety is laying off 270 employees, eighteen percent of its workforce, as mounting bipartisan opposition to its AI-powered police cameras intensifies.