DITV: Coralville Votes to Remove Flock Cameras
The short version: Coralville's city council voted 3-1 to dump its Flock Safety contract, proving organized local pushback can actually roll back ALPR surveillance.
Our Take
Credit to The Daily Iowan for covering a story that too often gets buried in local council minutes: a real, documented win against license plate surveillance. A 3-1 vote to end a Flock Safety contract doesn't happen overnight — it happens after months of residents showing up, asking hard questions about data retention, third-party access, and whether a rented camera network actually reduces crime or just normalizes tracking everyone's movements. Coralville's council apparently decided the tradeoff wasn't worth it, and that's worth paying attention to.
What makes this case notable is that it's a reversal, not just a rejection. Plenty of towns vote down Flock proposals before they start; fewer actually claw back and remove cameras once they're installed. That distinction matters because it shows these contracts aren't as permanent or as popular as the sales pitch suggests. Elected officials who once said yes can be persuaded to say no when constituents keep the pressure on and demand transparency about who's watching the watchers.
If you're in a community still debating a Flock contract — or wondering whether cameras have already gone up without much public discussion — check our camera map to see what's nearby, and use our take-action resources to push your own council toward the kind of accountability Coralville residents just won.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Daily Iowan, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.