Cambridge suspends use of Flock Safety cameras over data concerns
The short version: Cambridge, MA hit pause on its Flock Safety ALPR program after city councilors raised data-sharing and privacy red flags, CBS Boston reports.
Our Take
Credit to CBS Boston for the on-the-ground reporting, but the real story here is what it says about the rest of the country: a city council actually stopped and asked hard questions before rubber-stamping a surveillance contract. That's rarer than it should be. Most municipalities sign up for Flock's "free trial" cameras, get hooked on the dashboard, and only start asking about data retention and out-of-state sharing after a scandal breaks. Cambridge did it the other way around, and that's worth applauding even if the cameras come back online later with tighter rules.
The concerns driving this pause aren't hypothetical. Flock's national network lets thousands of agencies query each other's plate reads, which means a car photographed in Cambridge can end up in a search run by a department in a state with very different laws on immigration enforcement, abortion access, or protest surveillance. Once that data exists, local officials lose control over who eventually gets to look at it. "Suspended" isn't "removed," and it isn't "audited," so residents should keep pressing for real answers, not just a pause button.
If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras are already watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city council have this fight before the cameras go up instead of after, our take-action page has the tools to make that happen.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS Boston, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.