What The Flock?? Should we sacrifice our right to privacy for more surveillance?

Our Take

Credit to Real With O'Neil for framing the Flock Safety debate the way it should be framed: as a trade-off, not a freebie. Every time a city council votes to blanket its streets with automated license plate readers, officials sell it as a costless upgrade — more safety, zero downside. That's never true. The downside is a permanent, searchable record of where you drove, when, and how often, held by a private company and shared across a growing patchwork of police departments with little public oversight.

The video's title question — should we sacrifice privacy for more surveillance — cuts to the real issue: nobody actually voted on that trade. Flock cameras get installed through quiet procurement contracts, not ballot initiatives. Residents find out their town joined a nationwide ALPR network after the fact, if they find out at all. That's not consent, that's infrastructure creep, and it's exactly the kind of mission drift this site tracks city by city.

If this video got you wondering how many of these cameras are already watching your own commute, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit take action for concrete steps to push back at your next city council meeting.