Flock surveillance cameras can pose a crash risk for drivers, US experts say

Roadside safety advocates say some automated license plate readers may not meet highway safety standards

Flock Safety cameras have been pilloried for facilitating the AI -powered surveillance of private citizens and for targeting immigrants for years. But now safety advocates are also claiming that their physical location can pose potential roadside hazards.

At the bottom of a tree-lined hill on a narrow, two lane rural road in Greene county, Ohio , stands a black metal rod with a camera and solar panel attached at the top.

The camera, an automated license plate reader (ALPR), is owned by Flock Safety and is painted black, making it difficult to see.

Its dark color isn’t the only thing that makes it a potential hazard for drivers.

The metal rod has no breakaway plate – a safety feature close to the ground that, in the case of a collision with a vehicle, sees the pole snap, reducing the resistance and impact experienced by the vehicle and the people inside it.

It has no obvious stickers indicating it’s been inspected by safety authorities and is placed about two feet from the edge of the asphalt road. According to the Ohio department of transportation (ODOT), however, “On uncurbed facilities, [license plate readers must be] at least 8 [feet] from the nearest edge of a travel lane.”

The Beavercreek police department, Flock’s customer in this case, says that Flock is responsible for all instalments and that all cameras in its jurisdiction “received the appropriate approval”.

ALPRs record license plate details, as well as the make, model, color and any other notable features of a vehicle. Flock has an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 cameras deployed in more than 6,000 communities across the US. (Flock told the Guardian it wouldn’t share the exact number or location of its surveillance devices.)

This potential physical danger is one that Tennessee-based Steve Eimers, known online as the Guardrail Guy , has found himself increasingly documenting in recent months. Following the death of his 17-year-old daughter after the vehicle in which she was traveling crashed into a roadside structure on Interstate 75 a decade ago, Eimers has toured the country to highlight the failure of various authorities to meet their own legal requirements. His videos, posted across social media, have garnered millions of views.

“There are a billion different people looking into the top part of the cameras [but] nobody’s been looking at the bottom, and the crashworthy elements,” he says.

“The guardrail had to go through a heavy vetting process – they had to do a whole series of crash tests, they had to submit the crash test results in full with photos [which] are reviewed by state [department of transportation] engineers,” he says.

In 2024, crashes between a motor vehicle and a fixed barrier accounted for 26% of vehicle deaths nationwide, according to the National Safety Council, a non-profit.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, sign poles and rods can become a deadly hazard for motorists, which has led to the establishment of a standard “that requires all roadside sign supports in the clear zone … to be breakaway, yielding, or shielded by a barrier or crash cushion”.

Roadside safety hardware includes crash cushions , breakaway supports, transitions and other structures and spaces that help to prevent catastrophe for motorists who leave the road.

“Permits are required when working within ODOT’s right-of-way, including the installation of license plate reader cameras,” says David Rose, of Ohio’s department of transportation, who notes that state authorities are not involved in the installation of ALPRs, even when located on the state’s right-of-way.

“All work performed within corporation limits must be approved through the appropriate city or village, as ODOT does not have jurisdiction within corporation limits.”

Eimers says he has only ever found one Flock pole, in Erie county, Ohio, installed with the required breakaway plate.

But even in that case, he says the breakaway plate was positioned higher off the ground than the Federal Highway Administration permits, meaning the metal pole could catch the underside of a low-lying vehicle and potentially ignite a battery- or gas-fueled fire.

“Flock is not a sophisticated user of roadside safety hardware. They are nowhere near doing what they are supposed to be, what should be done,” Eimers says.

Flock and police departments say the cameras are an effective crime reduction tool, having played a key role in recovering stolen property and missing persons across the country.

The company says it follows all state and local requirements when it comes to the safe location of its hardware.

“We do not agree with the premise that Flock regularly installs poles in violation of federal, state, or local safety requirements. The appropriate pole type and installation specifications depend on the roadway, speed, location, jurisdiction, and requirements of the relevant transportation or permitting authority,” says Paris Lewbel, a Flock Safety spokesperson, who noted that the company planned to undergo a review of camera pole installations across its network.

“Customers generally determine camera locations based on their public safety priorities. Flock then works with the customer.”

Flock isn’t alone. ALPR companies such as Motorola Solutions , Redflex Traffic Systems and others are apparently routinely failing to meet roadside structure requirements, including often using other structures to place their monitoring devices on, in violation of state requirements.

While in urban areas Flock cameras are oftentimes attached high up on traffic lights or other larger structures, reducing the crash risk, in suburban and rural areas – where traffic speeds are typically higher – they are regularly erected as stand-alone structures where they add to the number of objects drivers can collide with.

What Eimers and others have found is that Flock and other ALPR camera structures, for the most part, are not being inspected by municipal authorities for meeting safety requirements as other roadside structures such as municipal signs are. What’s more, that they are painted black, with no reflecting surfaces, can make them difficult for drivers to see at night.

“Without that, what can happen is that metal pipe can act like a spear; that’s hollow pipe, it’ll core out your brain,’ warns Eimers, a registered nurse who says he has spent tens of thousands of hours inspecting and researching roadside safety requirements and manuals since his daughter’s death.

“We know that a lot of people leave the road, so we want a forgiving roadside.”