The Flock system refers to Guthrie's use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras from the company Flock Safety, approved by the Guthrie City Council in 2022 and later found to share local traffic data with nearly 100 outside government agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

2022 council approval

The Guthrie City Council unanimously approved a two-year trial of the Flock Safety system in 2022, funded by a Department of Justice grant, over concerns some council members raised about privacy and "mission creep." Guthrie Police Chief Don Sweger defended the system by citing its potential to speed up missing-persons and murder investigations, while a Flock company representative and one councilman described a hypothetical scenario in which the system could be used to search for a vehicle by description, such as a "red Honda," and lead police door-to-door until a match was found. The American Civil Liberties Union has separately criticized Flock Safety as building "a form of mass surveillance unlike any seen before in American life."

Data-sharing disclosure

In January 2025, citizen journalist Marven Goodman's publication The Sooner Sentinel revealed, via an open records request, that Guthrie's scanner data was accessible to nearly 100 government agencies, including the ATF, a sharing arrangement that had gone largely unaddressed when the council approved the system in 2022. Goodman's earlier reporting had also led to the removal of Guthrie scanners installed on a state highway without authorization from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. In April 2025, State Representative Tom Gann publicly warned fellow legislators about a last-minute push by Flock Safety lobbyists for state legislation authorizing broader warrantless surveillance, citing mission creep in other Oklahoma cities and a financial connection between one of Flock's early investors and a Beijing-based affiliate.