Flock cameras are being removed in Indiana’s Monroe County #flock #indiana #NPR

Our Take

Credit to Ball State Public Media for covering a story that doesn't get enough airtime: a local government actually hitting the brakes on Flock Safety once officials started asking who has access to the data, how long it's kept, and what it means to have a permanent record of everyone's movements through Bloomington. Most coverage of these camera networks is about expansion. Monroe County is a rare case of commissioners looking at the privacy tradeoffs and deciding the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

This matters because the standard pitch for ALPR networks is always the same — a handful of success stories about stolen cars or Amber Alerts, with little mention of the thousands of innocent drivers whose plates get logged, time-stamped, and stored regardless of whether they're suspected of anything. Monroe County's decision shows that when local officials actually interrogate the tradeoffs instead of rubber-stamping a vendor contract, they can conclude that a county-wide surveillance dragnet isn't worth the convenience. That's a template other counties should be paying attention to.

If you want to see whether cameras like these are already watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your county follow Monroe's lead than Flock's sales pitch, our take-action page has the tools to make that case to your own commissioners.