FLOCK cameras assist Lewiston police in locating a stolen truck; pursuit follows

Our Take

NEWS CENTER Maine's report reads like the industry's favorite pitch: a Flock camera flags a stolen truck, police give chase, three arrests follow. It's a clean story with a tidy ending, and it's exactly the kind of clip Flock Safety loves to see going viral. But one successful recovery doesn't tell us how many thousands of innocent Lewiston drivers had their plates, timestamps, and locations logged that same day for no reason at all.

That's the trade nobody asks voters about up front. High-speed pursuits are dangerous for bystanders too, and when they're triggered by an automated hit rather than live police work, there's little public accounting for how often the system is right, wrong, or just incidental to an arrest that would've happened anyway. Lewiston residents deserve to know what policy governs this data, who can access it, how long it's kept, and whether any independent audit has ever checked Flock's accuracy claims against real outcomes.

We don't dispute that a stolen truck got recovered. We dispute the idea that this justifies blanket plate surveillance of an entire town with zero warrant and minimal oversight. Check our map to see if Lewiston-area cameras are already logging your daily commute, and visit take action if you want to push your city council for real transparency before the next camera goes up.