Meet the Tech-Savvy Activists Fighting Against Flock Cameras
The short version: Rolling Stone profiles grassroots activists tracking and mapping Flock ALPR cameras, showing citizen sleuthing is becoming a real counterweight to corporate surveillance.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: Jack Crosbie and Rolling Stone put a spotlight on something we've been saying since day one — you don't need a law degree or a lobbyist to push back on Flock Safety, you need a decent set of eyes, a camera, and a willingness to walk your own neighborhood. The people in this video aren't professional privacy lawyers. They're regular folks who got tired of finding black boxes bolted to poles near their homes and decided to start documenting them instead of just wondering.
That's the whole ethos behind this kind of citizen mapping work: sunlight is the best disinfectant, and most people genuinely don't know how many ALPR cameras are already watching their commute. When a network can log your plate at dozens of intersections a day and store it for law enforcement to query later, 'if you have nothing to hide' stops being a real argument. The activists in this piece are doing the unglamorous, tedious work of turning invisible infrastructure into something visible and searchable — which is exactly what accountability requires.
We'd only add: you don't have to wait for a viral video to get involved. Check our map to see what's already been documented near you, and if you spot a camera that isn't listed, or you want to push back on your city council, our take action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Rolling Stone, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.