Emory University students, faculty, and workers gathered on campus Friday waving signs, beating drums, and chanting to pressure the institution’s administration to end AI-powered surveillance on its campus.
Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based surveillance tech company with tens of thousands of its cameras located in cities across the country, is at the heart of the Emory community’s protest. Students are calling for the institution to end its contract with the company, alleging that around 12 of Flock’s cameras are located around the campus and hospital. The university says the cameras have been on campus for the past two years.
“I think it’s just a gross invasion of people’s ability to just be on their campus and not feel like they’re being spied on,” said Ezi, a graduate student at the protest who declined to give their full name. “There’s a distinction between security cameras and cameras that have these further network capabilities to recognize people and to be used by outside agencies.”
The private company uses automated license plate reader cameras to gather data on vehicles, and that information is then used to apprehend those suspected of committing crimes. Law enforcement agencies that have contracts with Flock Safety can choose to opt into both a national and state search network that allows them to access data from other cameras within Flock’s system to find suspects across jurisdictions.
Students raise concerns about who can access the data and information from the company’s cameras located on their campus, as reports have come out about Flock’s camera logs being accessible by federal law enforcement such as U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company has also come under fire for its cameras having security vulnerabilities.
“We, the undersigned students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members oppose Emory University’s installation of Flock Safety Automated License Plate Readers on and around campus,” states a petition from the The DeFlock Emory Coalition, a combined group of student organizations.
“Flock’s technology has been used in ways that raise serious concerns, including immigration-related searches, tracking individuals across state lines, monitoring protest activity, and erroneously flagging people as targets for law enforcement that have led to wrongful stops and detentions,” the petition says.
In addition to ending the contract with Flock Safety, the students are also calling the administration to remove all license plate readers from campus and to initiate a community-led review of campus surveillance practices.
“We really want them to acknowledge their contract with Flock and explain why they have these cameras on campus,” said Amaris Christian, a first-year Emory student. “They keep hinting that the cameras are only accessible by the Emory Police Department, and that they’re ‘doing Flock right,’ but I don’t know if that exists.”
University officials told Capital B Atlanta that data from their Flock cameras is only available to Emory Police Department officers and that the information from the cameras is accessible for 30 days.
“EPD uses LPR information to identify and reduce potential threatening activity and to assist with any incident or investigation involving a vehicle,” said Laura Diamond, assistant vice president of university communications. “Emory does not share footage with the federal government unless law enforcement officials present a valid criminal warrant or specific court order issued by a federal judge. The university follows rules regarding access to the footage and how that information may be shared.”
Students contend that the university’s statements are inaccurate based on information they gathered through records requests from other Georgia law enforcement agencies. Students shared records with Capital B Atlanta that show at least seven different police departments in the state have access to Emory’s Flock camera network.
In an email to Capital B Atlanta, a student with the DeFlock Emory Coalition said the following:
“Through open records requests filed by organizers in the DeFlock Georgia network, we have obtained audit data from outside agencies. They confirm that at least seven other police departments have access to Emory’s Flock data through Flock’s sharing network: Powder Springs PD, Hiram PD, Kennesaw State University PD, Smyrna PD, Dunwoody PD, Cobb sheriffs, and Paulding County PD. We were not able to obtain records directly from Emory (the university denied our request) so the actual number could be higher. But seven is the floor, and it is already more than ‘only EPD officers.’”
And while the university said they do not share footage with immigration enforcement officials, the Atlanta Police Department made similar statements in 2025. Earlier this year, the Atlanta Community Press Collective reported that Atlanta police officials had conducted at least 15 searches using the city’s Flock license plate readers to assist in federal immigration operations.
Students say that Black and brown community members remain at risk while Flock’s tech is in use at Emory.
“It’s not just an immigrant rights issue, it’s a marginalized issue. It’s a Black issue, it’s a brown issue. A lot of people are being affected by this. So I just hope that, along with Emory, listening to us and being transparent, I hope it also brings people together — there’s power to the people when we can all stand together on one issue,” said Anayancy Ramos, a doctoral student at Emory.
In an email to Capital B Atlanta, Flock Safety spokesman Josh Thomas said the company does not have a direct relationship with ICE, but those contracted with Flock can decide who they choose to share their information with.
“Emory University, like all Flock customers, owns their data and they determine who they share it with — not Flock,” Thomas said.
Flock’s controversy
Co-founded in 2017 by three Georgia Tech graduates, Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd, Flock Safety specializes in software to connect video, audio, and drone technology into public and private security systems.
According to the company’s website, as of 2026 it has contracts in over 5,000 cities and communities across the country, including with multiple metro Atlanta law enforcement agencies.
Flock Safety cameras are reportedly also in use by Georgia State University police.
Over the past year, cities like Austin, Texas, Santa Cruz, California, and Denver have terminated their contracts with Flock Safety over resident privacy and security concerns. Local police departments have still been able to maintain some digital surveillance in these communities, however, by utilizing alternatives or loopholes.
In Denver, the city ended its plate reader contract with Flock Safety and signed a new contract with Axon, another surveillance tech company, best known for manufacturing the body cameras worn by police officers across the country. After the Austin Police Department lost access to its plate readers on city roads, it began accessing Flock data in neighboring communities.
While the Santa Cruz City Council voted 6-1 to terminate the city’s Flock contract, it left the door open for the city to seek a replacement.
The DeFlock Emory Coalition is one of many student-led opposition movements to Flock cameras at public and private and public institutions, including Indiana University and Cornell University.
Beyond residents’ concerns about Flock assisting in immigration enforcement, others have raised alarm around the general vulnerability of the camera network. Last year, Benn Jordan, a YouTuber in Cobb County, exposed a potential security flaw when he posted a video of the live feeds from Flock camera networks he had gained access to without permission.
Ending Flock at Emory
Students told Capital B Atlanta that the university denied their records requests to get information about the contract with the surveillance company.
At the protest, students highlighted the risks that undocumented and international students face with Flock cameras present on campus.
Ramos shared with the crowd of protestors that she is undocumented, and that ever since learning about the cameras she has continued to feel unsafe on campus while trying to finish her Ph.D program.
“I’m scared, I’m not gonna lie to you. My hands are shaking right now,” Ramos said into the microphone. “But I am more scared of a future where I stayed quiet, where some other undocumented grad worker wakes up next year at Emory and asks the same question I asked myself this morning, ‘Is it safe for me to go to work today?’”
Christian, the Emory first-year student, said she’s worried about how this surveillance could impact her and other Black students, as advocates say AI, facial recognition, and other surveillance tools have targeted and criminalized Black and brown people.
“I think being a Black woman who came from the Bronx, I’ve already had my own issues when it comes to high criminalization within my area,” Christian said. “I’ve been misidentified [by police] since I was in middle school, so I can really speak to the unfortunate bias that a lot of law enforcement has. … If law enforcement can misidentify you, then AI definitely can misidentify you, and I think that’s really a big issue here.”
Emory students said that as of Friday, almost 1,000 people have signed the petition. They have given university officials a handful of days to respond to their questions and demands.
“We think the community has every reason to push for hard answers rather than accept reassurances,” the Emory DeFlock Coalition said in an email to Capital B Atlanta.
Read More:
