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Fifty-six creators ask Home Depot and Lowe's to end Flock Safety camera contracts

September 12, 2026 at 21:37 EDT

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Policy & Regulation
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Fifty-six online creators with a combined 46 million followers have asked Home Depot and Lowe's to terminate their contracts with Flock Safety and remove the company's automated license plate readers from store parking lots. The letter went to executives at both retailers on Friday, arguing that vehicle data captured in those lots can be reached by local or federal law enforcement and used against immigrant day laborers and other shoppers.

Sept. 11, 2026 · Home Depot · Lowe's

Creators push to pull Flock cameras from parking lots

Fifty-six online creators with 46 million followers asked the two home-improvement chains to end Flock Safety contracts and remove automated license plate readers from store lots.

Network scale

One sheriff's office, 173 Lowe's stores

Texas sheriff's office

173

Lowe's locations nationwide

Public records showed a single Texas sheriff's office could search Flock readers at 173 Lowe's stores across the United States.

Creators on the letter

46M

Combined followers

153

Cities that dropped Flock deals

Days Lowe's may retain ALPR data

How the data moves

From parking lot to police search

1 Enter lot

Shopper drives into a Home Depot or Lowe's lot

→

2 ALPR capture

Camera logs plate, make, model, color, features

→

3 Shared network

Record sits in Flock's searchable database

→

4 Police query

Local agencies may search, including for ICE probes

Retailers' case

Theft, fraud, missing people

Home Depot says ALPRs help stop theft and organized retail crime. Flock says the tools helped expose a $20 million gift-card scheme and have been used to solve more than 1 million crimes and locate 10,000 missing people.

Critics' case

Shoppers in a dragnet

Creators warn immigrant day laborers and people of color are put at risk. Records show local police can search retail cameras nationwide, and Flock readers have misread plates — 71% of alerts in Roseville, California, in 2023-24.

The unresolved split

Home Depot says no federal access. Critics say local sharing still opens the door.

Home Depot

Does not grant federal agencies access to its license-plate readers or share ALPR data with immigration enforcement, it says.

Flock Safety

Private customers own the data; police cannot tap it without that customer's explicit authorization, a spokesperson said.

Lowe's

Has not commented on the creators' letter. May retain ALPR data up to 90 days and has not agreed to remove the cameras.

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