Panama City votes to remove 41 Flock surveillance cameras

Our Take

Credit to WMBB News 13 for covering a story that doesn't happen often enough: a city council actually reversing course on mass surveillance once residents showed up and pushed back. Panama City's vote to remove all 41 Flock cameras is a reminder that these systems aren't inevitable infrastructure — they're policy choices, bought with public money, and they can be unbought.

What stands out is that the objections weren't just about price tag. Residents framed this as a constitutional issue — the idea that every car entering or leaving town gets logged, time-stamped, and run against databases, regardless of suspicion. That's the core problem with ALPR networks like Flock: they don't watch for crime, they watch everyone, all the time, and store it for later. Once a council hears that argument clearly, the math on "cost vs. safety" stops looking so simple.

Panama City joins a growing list of towns rethinking these contracts after the honeymoon period wears off and the bills, the mission creep, and the privacy questions pile up. If you want to see whether your own city is running this network, check the map, and if you'd rather not wait for a budget crisis to force the issue, our take-action page has tools to get the conversation started at your next council meeting.