BCSO cuts ties with Flock cameras
The short version: KOAT reports Bernalillo County's sheriff's office dropped its Flock Safety contract after data privacy concerns came to light, a rare reversal worth watching.
Our Take
Credit to KOAT's Action 7 News for digging into this one. A county actually walking away from a Flock Safety contract is still a rare enough event that it deserves attention — most of these deals get renewed quietly, year after year, with little public debate. When a sheriff's office decides the privacy risks outweigh the promised crime-fighting benefits, that's a signal other jurisdictions should be paying attention to, not dismissing as a one-off.
What makes these reversals notable is that they usually don't happen because the technology failed to work as advertised — they happen because someone finally asked who else can access the data, how long it's kept, and whether local leaders ever meaningfully consented to a statewide or even national surveillance network. Flock's pitch is always about solving the crime in front of you. The actual product is a growing database of everywhere your car has been, shared across agency lines in ways most city councils never fully grasp when they sign the purchase order.
Bernalillo County stepping back doesn't mean the cameras are gone from New Mexico, and it definitely doesn't mean the broader rollout has slowed elsewhere. If you want to see what's actually watching your route to work, check our camera map, and if your own county hasn't had this conversation yet, our take-action page has what you need to start pushing for one.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KOAT, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.