Why is no blame being directed at the leader of this country? #flock #camera

Our Take

Cdejavu's video raises a fair point: the conversation around Flock Safety cameras tends to focus on local police departments and city councils, while the officials who actually hold the purse strings and sign the contracts often dodge accountability. Mass surveillance doesn't install itself. Someone in a position of authority approves the budget line, signs the vendor agreement, and decides that blanketing a town in license plate readers is worth the cost. When that person's name never comes up in the public debate, it's worth asking why.

This is part of a pattern we see across the country: ALPR expansion gets framed as a routine public-safety upgrade rather than a political decision with real civil liberties consequences. That framing lets elected leaders avoid the scrutiny that should come with greenlighting a surveillance network capable of tracking everyone's movements, not just suspects. Naming names and demanding public votes on these contracts is one of the few checks residents actually have.

Credit to Cdejavu for pushing the question of accountability into the frame. If you want to see whether this kind of surveillance has already reached your neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back locally, our take-action page has concrete steps for confronting the officials who actually signed off.