What Flock Cameras Cost: One $142,600 Payment
The short version: Finding Margins traces a public-records invoice showing St. Tammany Parish paid $142,600 for 47 Flock cameras and data retention, putting a real dollar figure on local surveillance expansion.
Our Take
Credit to Finding Margins for doing the unglamorous work of pulling an actual invoice, check, and ledger entry rather than taking a press release at face value. That paper trail matters: $142,600 for 47 cameras plus retention fees tells taxpayers exactly what 'public safety technology' costs in dollars, even if it says nothing about whether it actually reduces crime or just reduces privacy.
Per-camera math like this is useful ammunition for anyone sitting through a city council or sheriff's budget hearing. Flock's pitch is always about convenience and crime-solving, but invoices like this one show these are recurring, line-item expenditures — subscription surveillance billed annually, not a one-time purchase that quietly disappears from future budgets. Every renewal is another chance for a community to ask whether this is the best use of public money and whether residents ever actually agreed to be tracked this way.
If your county or parish has Flock cameras, there's likely a similar invoice sitting in a records request waiting to be found. Check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and visit take action for ways to push for transparency and accountability before the next contract renewal.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Finding Margins, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.