Last reviewed: September 12, 2026
Surveillance technology comes with a lot of acronyms, product names and government jargon.
You do not need to memorize them.
This glossary is here so when a contract says something like ALPR access includes hot-list alerts, Vehicle Signature search and audit logs, you can figure out what that actually means without opening twelve browser tabs.
Some terms below are general surveillance terminology. Others are specific Flock Safety product names. Where that distinction matters, we say so.
ALPR
Automated License Plate Reader. A camera system that automatically captures and processes information about vehicles.
Depending on the system, records may include a license plate, vehicle image, time, location, direction and other visible vehicle characteristics.
ALPR is often used interchangeably with LPR.
LPR
License Plate Reader. Generally another name for ALPR.
Some vendors prefer one term over the other. For our purposes, ALPR and LPR usually refer to the same basic category of technology.
ALPR hit
A result indicating that a vehicle observation matched something the system was looking for, such as a plate listed as stolen.
A hit should be treated as an investigative lead requiring appropriate verification. It is not automatically proof that the plate was read correctly, the underlying database information is current, the expected person is driving, or a crime is occurring.
Hot list
A list of license plates or vehicle information the system is configured to watch for.
A hot list may contain vehicles associated with stolen vehicles, wanted or missing people, AMBER Alerts, other law-enforcement alerts or locally entered investigative information.
Hot-list alert
A notification created when an ALPR observation matches an entry on a relevant hot list.
An alert does not eliminate the need to verify the actual plate, vehicle, underlying record and circumstances.
Historical search
Looking backward through previously stored ALPR observations.
Example: Where was this plate seen during the last seven days?
This is different from receiving a real-time alert when the vehicle appears. Historical search is one of the capabilities that makes ALPR fundamentally different from somebody simply seeing a car drive past once.
Real-time alert
A notification generated when the system detects something matching configured criteria.
Historical search asks: Where has this vehicle been?
An alert asks: Tell me when this vehicle appears.
Retention period
How long routine data remains stored before deletion under the applicable configuration or policy.
This needs to be verified locally. Flock’s 2026 public communications say it changed its recommendation and default for new customers to seven days, while existing customers retain locally approved periods. Other Flock policy materials have described 30 days as a standard period unless a customer’s agreement specifies otherwise.
So do not assume Flock always keeps data seven days or Flock always keeps data 30 days.
Ask: What is the actual retention setting here?
Evidence preservation
Keeping a particular record beyond routine deletion because it has become relevant to an investigation or case.
This is different from routine retention. A department might have seven-day routine retention while preserving particular evidence longer after it becomes part of a case.
Audit log
A record showing activity within the system.
Depending on the platform, an audit log may show who performed a search, when and other information about system use.
Flock says its searches are logged and reviewable by authorized supervisory personnel.
Audit logs can help identify misuse. They do not mean misuse cannot occur.
Flock Safety law-enforcement access information
Search reason
A stated purpose entered when someone searches the system.
Flock says ALPR searches require a reason connected to an investigation. That provides accountability. It is not necessarily the same as requiring independent approval before a search occurs.
Sharing
Allowing another authorized organization to access certain information or camera data.
Sharing may work in both directions: other agencies may receive access to locally generated data, and local personnel may receive access to data generated elsewhere.
That is why How many cameras does our city own? and How much camera data can our city search? can have very different answers.
Sharing partner
An outside organization given some form of authorized access under the platform’s sharing configuration.
Never assume a particular agency is a sharing partner without evidence.
National LPR network
Flock’s term for the broader network of participating ALPR systems and sharing relationships available through its platform.
That does not mean every Flock customer automatically has unrestricted access to every camera. Permissions and sharing arrangements matter.
Configuration
How a particular system is actually set up.
Examples include retention period, sharing permissions, enabled products, alerts, user roles and search capabilities.
Configuration matters because what a vendor offers is not necessarily what your local department has enabled.
Both still matter. Vendor capability describes what the system could support; local configuration describes the settings officials can currently document. Software, integrations, subscriptions and permissions may change without new roadside equipment, so residents should ask for entitlement lists, configuration-change records and audits rather than assume an unverified feature will remain unavailable.
Policy
The written rules describing how an agency says the system may be used.
Policy and configuration are different. And both are different from actual use.
Vendor capability
Something the technology company says its product can do.
Example: Flock offers convoy detection.
That proves a capability exists. It does not prove Redford uses convoy detection. We need local evidence for the second claim.
Local configuration
The capabilities actually enabled for a specific customer. This may depend on contracts, subscriptions, settings, permissions or product purchases.
Actual use
What records show users actually did with the system, such as search logs, audit records, alerts, case records or documented incidents.
This is the strongest evidence when the question is: How is our department really using it?
Vehicle Signature
A Flock-specific vehicle-search capability.
Flock says Vehicle Signature can help users search using visible characteristics beyond a license plate, including features such as make, vehicle type, color, roof racks, toolboxes, stickers and other identifying characteristics.
Flock Safety license plate reader product information
Vehicle Fingerprint
A Flock product term that appears in some older and current materials relating to detailed vehicle identification and search.
Vendor terminology changes over time, so older contracts or presentations may use Vehicle Fingerprint where newer materials emphasize Vehicle Signature.
When reading an old document, preserve the terminology used in the record rather than silently replacing it.
FreeForm
A Flock Safety product that allows authorized users to search enabled vehicle and video evidence using ordinary written descriptions.
Examples provided by Flock include descriptions such as dark SUV with rear bumper damage or, on enabled video systems, man in blue shirt and cowboy hat.
Flock says FreeForm can combine natural-language search across enabled LPR and video sources and does not use facial recognition for person searches. Person searches operate on enabled video feeds using visible, non-biometric characteristics.
Natural-language search
Searching by describing what you want in normal words rather than selecting only rigid database fields.
Example: dark SUV with rear bumper damage instead of selecting body type, color and damage through separate filters.
Facial recognition
Technology intended to identify or verify people using features of their face.
Flock states its standard ALPR system does not collect facial-recognition data.
Do not describe a technology as facial recognition simply because it can search for a person. Other non-biometric visual search technologies exist.
Flock Safety data privacy information
People search
Searching video for people based on visible characteristics.
Flock says FreeForm people searches can use clothing, visible accessories and other observable characteristics on compatible enabled video feeds, without facial recognition or biometric person identification.
Leonardo / ELSAG
Leonardo US Cyber & Security Solutions sells automatic license-plate readers and related software under the ELSAG brand. Government purchasing records may use the legal/vendor name Selex ES instead.
Finding one of these names does not by itself prove an agency has SignalTrace. Leonardo also sells ordinary mobile, fixed and solar-powered LPR systems.
SignalTrace / EOC Plus
SignalTrace is Leonardo/ELSAG’s current name for a product formerly marketed as EOC Plus. Leonardo says it detects supported broadcast Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID and vehicle-device signals, groups signals that routinely travel together and stores time-and-location observations for later analysis. It can be used with LPR observations or at collection sites without an LPR.
The vendor says it does not decrypt communications or retrieve stored device content. The privacy concern is the searchable movement, association and plate-correlation record created from the signals and metadata.
Read our sourced SignalTrace guide and Metro Detroit deployment status
Electronic signature
In SignalTrace materials, a recurring combination of device signals observed together at common times and locations. It is not a handwritten or cryptographic signature. Leonardo markets the combination as a way to recognize movement patterns and develop investigative leads even when a plate is unavailable.
Condor
A Flock video-camera product name found in contracts and older product materials.
Condor provides live and recorded video and is not simply another name for an ALPR camera.
For Redford, this distinction matters because the township approved both Flock vehicle cameras and separate Condor cameras. We should not count them all as ALPRs.
Read our sourced Condor and Raven guide
Flock Safety video-camera product page
Raven
An older Flock product name for acoustic detection now marketed as Flock Gunshot Detection.
Flock says the sensors continuously analyze short audio windows on the device and retain a short clip when a qualifying sound is detected. That is not the same as evidence that every conversation is recorded, but microphones in public space, changing detection categories and integration with LPR/video data still require specific contracts, settings and oversight.
Read our sourced Condor and Raven guide
Falcon
A Flock product name commonly associated with its fixed ALPR cameras.
If a government record says Falcon, that generally indicates a Flock license plate reader product. Different Falcon models may have different intended deployment conditions.
Enhanced LPR
A newer Flock software capability marketed as adding more advanced analysis to LPR information.
Flock currently advertises features such as convoy detection, multi-location searches, visual searches, plate-swap detection and hotspot analysis.
The existence of Enhanced LPR does not mean every Flock customer uses it.
Convoy Search
A feature intended to identify vehicles that repeatedly appear to be traveling with a vehicle of interest.
In plain English: What other vehicles seem to move with this one?
That can create investigative leads. It can also reveal associations that individual plate observations would not show on their own.
Multi-Geo Search
Searching for vehicles appearing around more than one specified location.
For example: Which vehicles appeared near several related incident locations?
Visual Search
Searching for a vehicle using an image rather than beginning with a known license plate.
Plate swap
A situation where a license plate may have been moved to a different vehicle.
Newer analytical products may attempt to identify inconsistencies between the plate and the vehicle normally associated with it.
Pattern analysis
Software-assisted identification of recurring relationships or behavior in data.
Examples might include vehicles appearing together, vehicles appearing at several related locations or repeated sightings over time.
A detected pattern is an investigative lead. It does not automatically prove why the pattern exists.
Mosaic
A useful way to describe what happens when many individually limited observations combine into a much more revealing picture.
One ALPR record may reveal little. Hundreds of records can potentially reveal routines, frequent destinations, relationships and patterns.
Like tiles in a mosaic, the whole picture can reveal more than any individual piece.
Geofence warrant
A legal process asking a technology company to identify devices located within a particular geographic area during a particular period.
Geofence warrants are not the same technology as ALPR. They appear on our legal page because courts considering digital location information help illustrate broader constitutional questions about searchable movement data.
Hotspot
This word can mean different things depending on context.
In surveillance software, a hotspot feature may identify areas where relevant vehicles, incidents or observations appear concentrated.
Always read the product description before assuming precisely what a hotspot means.
NCIC
National Crime Information Center. An FBI-administered criminal-justice information system used by authorized agencies.
It includes records involving categories such as stolen vehicles, wanted people, missing people and other law-enforcement information.
BOLO
Be On the Lookout. A notice asking law enforcement to watch for a particular person, vehicle or other item relevant to an investigation.
BOLO is broader law-enforcement terminology and is not specific to Flock.
RTCC / RTIC
Real-Time Crime Center or Real-Time Intelligence Center.
A centralized operation where personnel may monitor and use information from multiple systems such as cameras, ALPR, dispatch, video, alerts, maps and other investigative tools.
Terminology varies by jurisdiction.
Integration
A connection that allows one technology system to exchange information or functionality with another.
Integrations matter because the surveillance capability may become broader than any individual product considered alone.
API
Application Programming Interface. A technical method that allows different software systems to communicate.
You do not need to understand programming to understand why this matters. An API can make it easier for surveillance information to move between systems.
If a contract mentions an API or integration, ask what it connects to.
Transparency portal
A public-facing page some Flock customers use to publish information such as camera count, retention period, policies and usage statistics.
These portals can be useful evidence. They should still be checked for date, scope, definitions and whether the information reflects the full surveillance environment.
Detection
A record showing that a system observed something.
A vehicle detection is not the same thing as a search, alert, crime, suspect or arrest.
When a transparency page reports one million detections, that usually means observations of vehicles, not one million criminal events.
Search
A user querying stored information.
A search may return one record, many records or nothing useful. The number of searches performed does not automatically tell us how many crimes were solved.
Lead
Information that may help advance an investigation.
A lead is not proof. A strong investigative process verifies leads using other evidence and context.
False positive
A system result indicating a match when the real-world situation does not actually match what was intended.
For ALPR, examples could involve a plate misread, an incorrect database entry or another mismatch.
False negative
A system failing to identify something that should have matched.
For example, a plate of interest passes a camera but the system fails to produce the expected result.
No automated system is perfect. Both types of error matter.
Nonrenewal
Allowing a contract to end rather than beginning another term.
For DeFlock Metro Detroit, this can be one of the most important campaign mechanisms. The exact procedure depends on the contract.
Automatic renewal
A contract provision causing another term to begin automatically unless someone acts to stop it.
This is why the notice deadline may matter more than the expiration date.
Notice period
The amount of advance warning required before a contract can be prevented from renewing or otherwise changed.
If an agreement expires December 31 but requires 60 days’ notice, the practical campaign deadline is much earlier.
Termination for convenience
A contractual provision allowing one or both parties to end an agreement without proving that the other side did something wrong.
Not every contract contains this right. The exact wording matters.
Termination for cause
Ending an agreement because the other party allegedly failed to meet contractual obligations or another specified condition occurred.
Again, read the actual agreement.
Order form
A document specifying what a customer is purchasing.
An order form may include products, quantity, price, term and subscription dates. It may also incorporate a larger agreement by reference.
Master Services Agreement / MSA
A broader agreement containing the general legal terms governing the relationship between a customer and vendor.
An order form may say it is subject to the MSA. If so, we need both to understand the deal.
Amendment / Addendum
A later document changing or adding to an existing agreement.
It may modify price, term, products, services or other provisions.
Public record
A government record subject to applicable public-record laws, with important exceptions and exemptions.
Contracts, invoices, meeting records, policies and many other surveillance-related government documents may be obtainable through ordinary government websites or Michigan FOIA.
FOIA
Freedom of Information Act. In this project, we usually mean the Michigan Freedom of Information Act when discussing requests to Michigan local governments.
FOIA is a tool for requesting existing government records. It is not a mechanism for forcing an agency to answer questions or create new records.
DeFlock
A broader movement opposing Flock Safety ALPR networks and related mass-surveillance infrastructure.
DeFlock Metro Detroit is an independent, DeFlock-aligned local civic effort. DeFlock’s public directory describes listed local groups as independently run and not affiliated with DeFlock.
DeFlocking
The outcome we are trying to achieve: ending the covered mass-surveillance practice through lawful removal and nonrenewal.
Replacing Flock with another substantially similar mass vehicle-tracking platform is not DeFlocking. It is changing vendors.
One distinction worth remembering
If you remember nothing else from this glossary, remember these four:
Vendor capability
What the company says its product can do.
Local configuration
What this customer actually has enabled.
Written policy
What users are officially allowed to do.
Actual use
What the records show really happened.
Those four things are related. They are not interchangeable.
That distinction will prevent a remarkable amount of bad surveillance reporting.
How Much Can These Systems Actually See? →