Why Flock cameras are facing growing privacy concerns | To The Point with Alex Bell

Our Take

Credit to Alex Bell and the ABC10 team for putting a mainstream news lens on something we've been tracking for a while: Flock Safety's network of automated license plate readers isn't just a local police tool anymore, it's a sprawling, largely unregulated surveillance grid that quietly logs where you drive, when, and how often. When a segment titled "To The Point" leads with growing privacy concerns, that's a signal the conversation is finally catching up to the scale of what's been installed in driveways, intersections, and HOA entrances nationwide.

What makes this story matter isn't one bad actor or one abused search. It's the architecture. Flock's pitch to local departments is convenience and crime-solving, but the byproduct is a de facto national tracking system that can reveal patterns of life without a warrant, without your knowledge, and often without meaningful local oversight of who gets access to that data or how long it's kept. Once that infrastructure exists, the temptation to expand its use — for immigration enforcement, for tracking people seeking reproductive care, for political surveillance — doesn't go away. It grows.

If this segment left you wondering whether one of these cameras is already watching your street, check our map to see what's been documented near you, and if you want to push back, our take-action guide walks through how to raise this with your city council before the next contract renewal.