The Keys
The short version: Central Oregon DSA's "The Keys" spotlights how Bend's ALPR data may be collected locally but controlled by Flock Safety, not city residents.
Our Take
Central Oregon DSA's video "The Keys" cuts right to the core problem with municipal ALPR deployments: the city of Bend may flip the switch on these cameras, but it doesn't hold the keys to what happens with the data afterward. That distinction matters enormously. When a private vendor like Flock Safety controls the infrastructure, the terms of access, retention, and sharing are set far from any city council chamber or public meeting — and often far from the reach of the residents being surveilled.
This is the pattern we track constantly at DeFlock: a local government installs cameras under the banner of public safety, then quietly loses the ability to say who else gets to see that data — other agencies, other states, federal partners, or whoever the vendor's network-sharing agreements allow. "Local control" becomes a talking point, not a reality, the moment the actual keys sit in a corporate database outside anyone's direct oversight.
Credit to Central Oregon DSA for pushing this conversation into the open in Bend. If you want to see whether your own neighborhood has these cameras watching your daily movements, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back, our take-action resources can help you start asking your city council the same hard questions.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Central Oregon DSA, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.