How American is becoming a Surveillance State | Flock Cameras
The short version: Eigen Reports lays out how Flock Safety quietly assembled a de facto nationwide ALPR network one city contract at a time, without ever facing a single national vote.
Our Take
Eigen Reports nails the core problem: nobody ever voted for a national vehicle-tracking system, yet that's effectively what we have. Flock Safety didn't need a federal mandate — it just needed a few thousand city councils to say yes to a "stolen car" pitch, one purchase order at a time. String those contracts together and you get 120,000+ cameras logging where you drive, when, and how often, all feeding into a searchable network that crosses jurisdiction lines like they don't exist.
That's the sleight of hand worth sitting with: the private/public distinction the video raises isn't academic. A privately owned camera network that police departments rent access to sidesteps a lot of the oversight, procurement scrutiny, and public debate that a government-built system would have triggered. No agency had to justify a surveillance state to voters — it just showed up, camera by camera, disguised as a public-safety upgrade.
Credit to Eigen Reports for tracing how decentralized rollout became de facto centralization. If you want to see how close this network is to your own street, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at the city-council level where these contracts actually get approved, our take-action guide is a good place to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Eigen Reports, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.