After an argument between two drivers in the Rehoboth Beach traffic circle resulted in an assault with serious injuries, Rehoboth police reviewed footage captured by cameras monitoring Rehoboth Avenue at the city's entry and exit. 

"Not only did the surveillance cameras capture the assault, but then that vehicle, the suspect vehicle, drove through the [license plate reader]," said Capt. Jaime Riddle. "No other way would we have ever figured out any identifying information for that vehicle. That person who got seriously assaulted would have never had their crime solved."

The cameras used to track down the wanted subjects were made by manufacturer Flock Safety. Hundreds of cameras from this company have popped up and started monitoring Delaware’s roadways in the last five years.

These Automatic License Plate Recognition devices utilize artificial intelligence to instantly capture the license plate number and several details about a vehicle, including make, model, color, bumper stickers and even scratches. Depending on the agency, the collected information could be uploaded into a database shared nationwide.

But many people around the country and in Delaware see the cameras as an invasion of privacy in an era of mass data collection and the emergence of artificial intelligence. 

According to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Cape Gazette in June, Delaware has at least 115 ALPR cameras in operation, including at least 90 in Sussex County. However, the information provided by the Delaware Department of Transportation does not include any ALPR cameras in Kent County.

FOIA requests seeking the number of cameras and their locations submitted to several Cape Region police departments were denied. The departments say the information is protected by state law, which exempts intelligence files compiled for law enforcement purposes. Also, data compiled by these devices is considered investigatory files, which are also exempt.

However, websites such as DeFlock have been created for the public to log the locations of ALPR cameras. According to that website, there are hundreds more ALPR cameras operating in Delaware.

The Cape Gazette’s FOIA requests to the Delaware Department of Transportation and Delaware State Police sought information regarding installation dates of each camera, purchase orders or contracts related to the cost of the cameras, and if there are ongoing maintenance or operating agreements.

DelDOT provided several documents at no charge, including DelDOT Safety Permit applications for more than 100 cameras. Those applications include the agency seeking a permit, the location of cameras and the type of camera to be installed.

In response to the FOIA request, Delaware State Police provided a purchase order and two price quotes for Flock Safety devices and/or software.

The purchase order from January 2026 was for $95,261 for the core Flock Safety software package. That package includes vehicle search and investigation tools, real-time alerts for vehicles on hotlists, national license plate reader network sharing and other features.

Another document from September 2025 quotes $100,275 for an integrated public safety platform that detects, centralizes and decodes actionable evidence to increase safety, improve efficiency and connect the community.

In a third document, the agency is quoted $4,624.99 apiece for five cameras. According to the description, the quote was for law enforcement grade tactical deployment license plate recognition cameras with vehicle fingerprint technology and real-time alerts for unlimited users.

According to information provided by DelDOT, the City of Rehoboth Beach operates at least 16 Flock cameras, with the majority on Rehoboth Avenue. In some locations, there are up to four cameras facing different directions. In addition to Flock Safety cameras, the city recently executed a contract with Placer.ai, an analytics company that collects geolocation data using cellphone apps.

Rehoboth Beach Police Chief Keith Banks said there are four ALPR locations at entry and exit points of the city. He said the other cameras are made by Flock, but are more of a surveillance-type camera.

"We had cameras on the Boardwalk that were failing, old and outdated," Banks said. "So through the company Flock, I could just get regular cameras. In some sense, I wish I'd have paid more [for another brand] because people see Flock and associate it with [ALPRs]." 

He said the Flock Safety cameras on the Boardwalk are essentially Ring cameras, doing nothing more than giving the department eyes on what's happening. 

Officials from Lewes, Milton and Dewey Beach responded to inquiries about ALPRs, saying they do not own or operate ALPR cameras within their boundaries. Milton had purchased a camera, but returned it.

"I have decided not to use Flock at this time," said Milton Police Chief Derrick Harvey. "I may circle back in the years to come for the use of LPR cameras as they are a valuable tool."

While many towns have not installed the devices yet, the state police have added cameras near their borders. Three cameras are just outside Lewes – two on Kings Highway and one on Savannah Road. There are eight in the Long Neck area, mostly along Long Neck Road, and eight in the Bethany Beach and Ocean View areas.

By far, the most cameras in Sussex County can be found in Seaford and Laurel. According to records, there are an estimated 13 in Laurel and eight in Seaford. There are also cameras in Delmar, Greenwood, Dagsboro, Georgetown and Millsboro.

Cameras have caught the attention of residents, visitors and even groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. According to an article published on the ACLU website, Flock Safety is the most commonly used company, but similar ALPR cameras are offered by Axon, Vigilant, Genetic, PlateSmart, Innovate Systems, Rekor, ELSAG, Perceptics and Jenoptik. ACLU’s concerns lie with a lack of transparency, oversight and regulation related to how the cameras collect, store and use data.

Banks said there is nothing nefarious going on with these devices.

"They do not continously track your location or anything like that," he said. "It supports law enforcement in finding stolen vehicles, locating suspects and solving crimes. LPRs read license plates, but not people. They do not collect or store personal information about individuals like their skin color."

Banks said the ALPR cameras have been particularly helpful in hit-and-run cases, which have seen an uptick in recent years in the resort town.

Some agencies have created transparency portals to share information about the use of ALPR and other similar technology. Rehoboth Beach is one such town; Banks believes his agency is the only one in Delaware to do so.

According to data on Rehoboth Beach's portal, there are 31 ALPR and other cameras operating in the city. Over a recent 30-day period, 209,817 unique license plates were detected, and 168 plates appeared on a hotlist, which targets vehicles law enforcement agencies are actively searching for. Rehoboth Beach has a policy that any hotlist hits must be human-verified before any action is taken. Hotlists used by Rehoboth include the National Crime Information Center and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Banks and Riddle each emphasized that there are specific procedures officers must follow in order to review data or footage collected from one of the city's Flock Safety cameras. 

"A search requires a complaint number; it requires a reason," Riddle said. "Officers have to enter those reasons in the data as to why they're doing that search. It's almost no different than me getting a warrant. I have to give a judge probable cause as to why I want to arrest somebody, and they have to approve it. It's the same thing with an LPR. I have to give the LPR a reason to do that search."  

Banks said all his officers have been trained on how to use the system.

"You can't just go in there, because it tracks everything you're doing," he said. "There are so many checks and balances. For us, it's just like body-worn cameras; there are audits, random checks and everything else."

Rehoboth Beach's portal specifies the devices only detect license plates and vehicles. They do not detect race or gender, or use facial recognition. Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, and harassment or intimidation.

Delaware State Police has not created a transparency portal. It also declined to publicly release locations of the ALPRs it operates in Sussex County and to participate in this story.