flock camera scam.

Our Take

R.T.D inc's "flock camera scam" is blunt in its framing, and honestly, the skepticism is earned. Flock Safety doesn't just sell hardware — it sells a subscription model, locks municipalities into recurring contracts, and often gets installed with minimal public debate before residents even know the cameras are there. When a channel outside the usual policy and journalism circles starts calling this out as a "scam," that's a signal the pitch isn't landing the way Flock's sales team would like.

We can't vouch for every claim in a given video, but the underlying concern tracks with what we've documented for a while: towns sign multi-year deals based on vendor-supplied crime stats, with little independent audit of whether the cameras actually reduce crime or just generate billable alerts and mission creep. License plate data gets shared across a growing network of agencies, often with few guardrails on misuse, retention, or who else can query it down the line.

Credit to R.T.D inc for putting the financial angle in front of a different audience — most ALPR criticism focuses on privacy, not the contract mechanics that get these cameras approved in the first place. If you want to see whether this is happening near you, check our camera map, and if you want to push back at a city council meeting, our take-action page has a starting point.