Fighting Flock: Activists push back against police surveillance technology, license plate readers
The short version: ABC 7's I-Team spotlights Chicago-area activists confronting Flock Safety's license plate readers, adding a major media market to the growing backlash against automated surveillance.
Our Take
Credit to ABC 7 Chicago's I-Team for putting local faces and voices behind what's usually an abstract policy fight. When neighbors start showing up at city council meetings to ask why a private company's cameras are logging every car that passes through their block, that's the surveillance debate working the way it's supposed to — in public, with real accountability pressure on elected officials who signed these contracts.
Chicago is a telling battleground. It's a city that already has a fraught history with camera networks and predictive policing tools, and Flock's pitch — 'just for solving crimes, nothing to worry about' — runs into a public that's heard that promise before. The activists featured here are doing the unglamorous work of FOIA requests, community organizing, and showing up repeatedly, which is exactly what it takes to slow down a system designed to expand quietly through consent decrees and inter-agency data sharing agreements most residents never vote on.
If you're in the Chicago area or anywhere else and want to know whether Flock has already reached your street, check our camera map. And if this story lights a fire, don't let it stop at watching — our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level, the same kind of steps these Chicago activists are already taking.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of ABC 7 Chicago, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.