IR Flock Detector (Flock Noir)

Our Take

Valleytech Custom Solutions is tinkering in a space that's getting more attention every month: how to actually detect the infrared flash and sensor signature of a Flock Safety ALPR camera before you drive past one blind. Whether or not "Flock Noir" becomes a polished product, the fact that independent makers are building detection hardware at all says something about where public trust in these systems stands. People don't want to just be told the cameras are "only reading plates" — they want a way to verify it themselves.

We're always cautious about DIY detector claims until they're independently tested, since IR emitters, false positives, and inconsistent camera housings make this a genuinely hard engineering problem. But the underlying instinct is sound: if a device is photographing your car on public streets at scale, you have every right to know where and when it's happening. That's the same instinct behind our own camera map, which tracks confirmed and suspected Flock locations crowdsourced from residents, not vendors.

Projects like this are a reminder that the fight over ALPR transparency isn't just happening in city council chambers — it's happening in garages and workshops too. If you want to push back through official channels instead of a soldering iron, our take-action page has steps for requesting records and raising the issue locally.