Fury as Trump installs Flock cameras inside national parks

Our Take

If the reporting from The Mirror US holds up, it marks a troubling escalation: surveillance infrastructure built for parking lots and city streets is now creeping into the national parks we think of as refuges from exactly this kind of monitoring. Rangers' anger, as described in the video, isn't just about bureaucratic overreach — it's a recognition that Flock's automated license plate readers log the movements of every visitor, hiker, and camper who drives through, whether or not they're suspected of anything.

This matters because national parks are supposed to be shared public space, not another data collection point feeding a nationwide, largely unregulated network of plate scans. Once a camera goes up, that location's traffic becomes part of a searchable history, often shared across agencies and jurisdictions with little public oversight or consent. Expanding that net into federal lands sets a precedent that no corner of American life, not even a hike in the woods, is exempt from automated tracking.

We're keeping an eye on where these systems are popping up, including on public lands, and encourage readers to check our camera map to see what's been documented near them. If you want to push back on this kind of expansion, our take-action resources walk through how to raise the issue with local and federal officials.