How police share Flock Safety data across America
The short version: AJC's investigation shows how Flock turns thousands of local ALPR cameras into one searchable national surveillance network, with little oversight.
Our Take
Credit to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for digging into something Flock Safety would rather you not think too hard about: once your local police department signs up for a camera, that data doesn't stay local. It flows into a network that other agencies, sometimes hundreds of miles away and operating under totally different laws, can query. A patrol car in one state can effectively ask "where has this plate been" and get answers pulled from towns it has no jurisdiction over and no accountability to.
This is the part of the ALPR debate that keeps getting glossed over in city council meetings where Flock reps show up promising to solve package theft. It's never just "one camera at one intersection." It's a pooled, searchable, cross-jurisdictional database of where people drive, when, and how often — built without the warrants, judicial oversight, or public debate that this kind of tracking power should require. The sales pitch is hyper-local. The architecture is national.
If a video like this makes you wonder whether a camera in your own town is already feeding this network, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit our take-action page for ways to push back at the local level before the next contract gets signed.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Atlanta Journal-Constitution, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.