Flock Exposed - VehicleManager: Motorola's License Plate Tracking System
Who Makes It
VehicleManager is a license plate recognition (LPR) analytics product sold by Motorola Solutions. Motorola calls it "a vehicle location intelligence solution."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page / Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
On January 7, 2019, Motorola Solutions announced it had acquired VaaS International Holdings for $445 million in cash and equity. Vigilant Solutions, which served law enforcement users, was one of VaaS's subsidiaries.
Source: Motorola Solutions press release, January 7, 2019
The product still carries the Vigilant name. Motorola's own web addresses for the product page and brochure read "vigilant-vehiclemanager," and MCA markets it as "Motorola Solutions Vigilant VehicleManager."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page / Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure / MCA, Exploring Vigilant VehicleManager from Motorola Solutions
What It Does
Motorola's brochure states: "VehicleManager is cloud-based and available on desktop or mobile meaning that it can be accessed from anywhere you have an internet connection."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
The system lets users search for a vehicle and review its location history. Motorola states: "Even with a partial plate, run a search for a vehicle."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page
According to the brochure, VehicleManager "provides complete and partial plate search capabilities with date and time filters," and users can "apply vehicle year, make, model and color filters to find a vehicle that has frequented a specific area."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
Motorola markets "association and alerting tools" to spot vehicles that regularly travel together or park near each other across multiple locations. The brochure describes "convoy analysis" to "identify vehicles travelling together" and "associate analysis" to "identify vehicles who have been seen together."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page / Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
Motorola says users can "use historical vehicle location data to determine potential locations they might be hiding out," and its brochure says the system can "determine when the vehicle is most likely to be there."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page / Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
MCA, a company that markets the product, describes it as a solution that "enables law enforcement agencies to track, analyze, and predict vehicle movements."
Source: MCA, Exploring Vigilant VehicleManager from Motorola Solutions
Hot Lists and Alerts
Motorola states users can "configure and share hot lists and alerts for vehicles of interest to your team."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page
MCA describes hot lists "for stolen vehicles, persons of interest, or crime suspects," says agencies can "share hot lists between partner agencies," and says users "receive real-time alerts when a flagged vehicle is detected."
Source: MCA, Exploring Vigilant VehicleManager from Motorola Solutions
How Much Data and Who Shares It
MCA describes "billions of detections available through agency-defined data retention and controlled data sharing."
Source: MCA, Exploring Vigilant VehicleManager from Motorola Solutions
Motorola's brochure says agencies can "choose how long your data is retained based on your local law and regulations" and advertises "easy data sharing capabilities, with built-in memorandum of understanding (MOU) templates."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager brochure
Motorola says users can find vehicles "by leveraging your local data and/or shared data."
Source: Motorola Solutions, VehicleManager product page
Who Can Access It
Motorola's data management FAQ states: "For our law enforcement customers, our systems are completely CJIS compliant." CJIS refers to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services security requirements.
Source: Motorola Solutions, LPR Data Management FAQ
The same FAQ says commercial license plate data, which comes from repossession vehicles, "is not commingled with law enforcement or enterprise data, nor is law enforcement or enterprise data ever accessible to commercial entities."
Source: Motorola Solutions, LPR Data Management FAQ
The FAQ says the data belongs to the customer: "As the data is your property, it is held according to the retention policy set forth by you." It also says law enforcement customers can share data within VehicleManager.
Source: Motorola Solutions, LPR Data Management FAQ
VehicleManager in Court
In United States v. Kyle, a federal judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma found that a Tulsa County deputy had access to two license plate reader systems, Flock and VehicleManager. The court described both as "gathering and organizing historical data about a vehicle's whereabouts on public roadways for use by law enforcement across the country."
Source: Opinion and Order, United States v. Kyle, N.D. Okla., Oct. 1, 2026 (CourtListener)
The court found the deputy had access to at least 30 days of vehicle location information in many states, and that his license plate reader search returned "more than 50 individual records of Kyle's whereabouts across the country for an entire month."
Source: Opinion and Order, United States v. Kyle, N.D. Okla., Oct. 1, 2026 (CourtListener)
On October 1, 2026, the judge ruled that the warrantless search violated the Fourth Amendment and suppressed the evidence. See our page "Federal Judge Rules Against Warrantless Flock Search" for the full story.
Source: Opinion and Order, United States v. Kyle, N.D. Okla., Oct. 1, 2026 (CourtListener)
The Privacy Lawsuit
On July 16, 2026, the law firm Gibbs Mura filed an amended class action complaint against Motorola and its subsidiary, Vigilant. According to the firm, the suit alleges that California license plate reader data was unlawfully shared with federal and out-of-state law enforcement, that privacy policies were inadequate, and that the companies profited from drivers' location and movement information. These are allegations, not court findings.
Source: Class Law Group (Gibbs Mura), Motorola ALPR Privacy Lawsuit
The complaint alleges Motorola's cameras tracked vehicles in California cities including Pleasanton, Sacramento, Modesto, Merced, and Livermore.
Source: Class Law Group (Gibbs Mura), Motorola ALPR Privacy Lawsuit
Questions to Ask Your Town
Does our police department use VehicleManager or any other Motorola or Vigilant license plate reader product?
How long does our department keep license plate data, and is that period written into policy?
Which other agencies can see our town's plate data, and is there a signed sharing agreement for each one?
Does our department search data that other agencies, in other states, have collected?
Is a warrant required before an officer searches a vehicle's location history?
This page will be updated as more factual sources become available.