Cheektowaga dispatchers suspended for misuse of Flock cameras

Our Take

Every time a Flock Safety sales pitch rolls through a city council meeting, it comes with the same reassurance: strict policies, audit trails, only trained personnel, nothing to worry about. WGRZ-TV's report out of Cheektowaga is a real-world reminder of how thin that promise actually is. Dispatchers with access to a mass license plate surveillance network got caught misusing it, and now the department is scrambling to "tighten policies" after the fact. That's the pattern with ALPR scandals nationwide — the abuse happens first, the policy fix comes second, and the public only finds out because a reporter dug it up.

Credit to WGRZ-TV for pushing this story into the open, because these incidents rarely surface on their own. Flock's own audit logs exist precisely because misuse is foreseeable, not hypothetical, and "we'll tighten our procedures" after the fact isn't accountability — it's damage control. The real question for Cheektowaga residents, and for every community with these cameras, is who's watching the watchers in real time, not just after a scandal breaks.

If you want to know how many of these cameras are already logging your daily movements, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back than just worry, our take-action page has concrete steps for your town.