DeFlock South Jersey organizer says Flock cameras threaten privacy, need guardrails

Our Take

CBS Philadelphia's local news team put a camera in front of something we talk about constantly: ordinary residents waking up to the fact that their town quietly installed a network of license plate readers with almost no public debate. The South Jersey organizer featured in this segment is doing the unglamorous work that actually moves the needle — showing up to council meetings, asking where the data goes, and asking who's watching the watchers. That's the fight, full stop.

What makes Flock's rollout so unsettling isn't just the cameras themselves, it's the speed and lack of friction. Police departments sign contracts, cameras go up on utility poles, and suddenly every car that passes through a neighborhood is logged, time-stamped, and searchable in a database that can be queried by agencies far outside the town that paid for it. No ballot measure, no real community input, just a vendor pitch and a budget line. When local reporters start covering pushback like this, it's a sign the conversation is finally catching up to the infrastructure.

If you want to see whether your own neighborhood has already been wired up, check our camera map — and if you're ready to push back the way this South Jersey group is, our take-action page has concrete steps for showing up at your next council meeting.