Notorious Surveillance Company Amazon Cancels Ring-Flock Partnership

Amazon Ring just announced it’s canceling its new partnership with Flock Safety – adding to the wave of backlash against the Atlanta-based surveillance company known for selling Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) to police departments, cities, HOAs, and scores of retail businesses. Amazon’s decision comes on the heals of enormous backlash against Ring’s Super Bowl ad promoting a new feature, Search Party, that blankets entire communities with invasive AI surveillance under the guise of searching for lost pets.

Reporting from 404 Media last year exposed that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agencies have been tapping Flock databases to target people during immigration raids and to investigate people who travel for abortion care.

Across the U.S. communities have been rising up against Flock, targeting local city contracts, contracts with homeowners associations (HOAs), and contracts with commercial retailers like Lowe’s. Over two dozens cities have taken a stand against ALPRs and turned their Flock cameras off and/or canceled their contracts. These include Eugene, OR, Evanston, IL, Scarsdale, NY, Oak Park, IL, Guthrie, OK, Austin, TX, and Denver, CO.

Amazon Ring has also faced resistance for years for funneling surveillance data to law enforcement. In 2025, amid horrifying attacks on immigrants and other marginalized groups by ICE, Ring announced it would be launching partnerships with Axon and Flock that would re-open data-sharing avenues between Ring owners and law enforcement.

“You know Flock’s surveillance technology is truly horrifying when a company as evil as Amazon Ring decides to distance itself from the tech. This decision speaks to the enormous momentum communities and civil society groups are building in exposing and shaming companies for fueling ICE’s violence,” said Leila Nashashibi, campaigner at Fight for the Future.

“All across the country, people are understanding how the spread of surveillance tools like Flock’s ALRPs are helping ICE wreak havoc on our communities. Not only do we have to hit Flock from every possible angle – public contracts, corporate contracts, pension fund investments and more – we also have to target Axon and Amazon and other companies enabling the worst of ICE’s harms. Now is the time to be crystal clear: if you’re a company and your business supports ICE, we’re mobilizing to make sure there’s a price to pay.”

Not surprisingly, despite canceling its partnership with Flock, Ring has chosen to maintain its collaboration with surveillance company Axon – a collaboration that allows police to request camera footage from Ring users through the Community Requests platform. This feature is exactly what privacy advocates fought against for years, and temporarily succeeded in shutting down in 2024.

Those looking to join the movement against Flock and ALPRs should visit fftf.link/flockout to sign a petition targeting Lowe’s and to read through the step-by-step breakdown for launching a municipal campaign.

For students and educators looking to sever their universities’ ties with companies profiting from ICE’s violence, check out this toolkit.