We beat Flock. Now some cities are buying the same surveillance from somebody else.
The short version: A win against Flock doesn't end mass surveillance if cities just buy the same tech under a different company's name.
Our Take
Credit to Misfits Guide to the Galaxy for flagging what should've been obvious from the start: beating one vendor doesn't beat the business model. Flock Safety reportedly offering buyouts is a real sign that public pressure and organizing work. But license plate surveillance isn't a Flock problem, it's an industry problem, and if a city council votes down Flock only to quietly sign with a competitor running the same camera-to-database pipeline, nothing actually changed for the people being tracked.
This is exactly why we keep saying the fight can't stop at brand names. Motorola, Rekor, Leonardo, and a dozen smaller players are all happy to sell the same core product: a networked camera that logs your plate, your location, and your travel patterns, often shared across jurisdictions with little oversight. A city that trades Flock for a rebrand hasn't won anything, it's just given its residents a false sense of victory while the dragnet keeps growing under a different logo.
If your town is celebrating a Flock rejection, the next move is to ask what's replacing it, and to get that answer in writing before the contract gets signed. Check our camera map to see what's actually deployed near you, and if you want to push back on whatever comes next, our take-action page has the tools to do it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Misfits Guide to the Galaxy, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.