The new problem with flock cameras
The short version: NewsChannel 9 reports hackers pulled a Flock camera, cracked it open, and handed their findings to journalists — exposing how fragile this surveillance infrastructure really is.
Our Take
Credit to WTVC NewsChannel 9 for covering this one, because it cuts against the narrative Flock Safety has spent years building. The company sells these cameras as secure, locked-down infrastructure that only trusted law enforcement can access. Now we've got hackers physically removing a unit, breaching its data, and sharing what they found with the press. If that's possible, every assumption about who can get at your travel patterns, your plate reads, your daily movements, needs to be thrown out.
This isn't just an embarrassing headline for Flock. It's a preview of the real risk profile of mass ALPR networks. These cameras sit on poles in your neighborhood, often with minimal physical security, feeding a cloud database that local police, federal agencies, and apparently now unauthorized third parties can potentially touch. A breach like this doesn't just expose a vendor's bad week — it exposes every driver whose plate got logged near that camera. The people most at risk from this kind of data walking out the door are the same people Flock claims to protect: survivors of stalking and abuse, activists, and anyone who'd rather not have their life mapped out in a database nobody fully controls.
Hackers proving a point doesn't fix the underlying problem — the cameras are still going up, and the data is still flowing. If there's one near you, go check the map and see what's already watching your street, then head to take action to push back at your next city council meeting.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WTVC NewsChannel 9, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.