VEDA WORLD NEWS | TREVOR CHANDLER FLOCK SAFETY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS-HOUSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT

Our Take

VEDA World News put Flock Safety's Director of Public Affairs, Trevor Chandler, in front of the camera alongside Houston Police Department to talk up the company's license plate reader network. Credit to host Michael Thervil for getting a Flock executive on record, but interviews like this tend to run heavy on company talking points — crime-solving anecdotes, public-safety framing — and light on the harder questions: who audits the data, how long it's retained, which agencies get query access, and what happens when the system is wrong.

That's the pattern we see across Flock's media rounds nationally. The company sends a spokesperson, a local police department vouches for the tool, and the conversation rarely touches on the thousands of cameras now logging every vehicle that passes, regardless of suspicion, or the fact that Flock's own audit trails have repeatedly shown data being pulled for purposes well outside the stated mission. Houston residents deserve to know not just that these cameras exist, but exactly where, how many, and under what oversight — details that rarely make it into a friendly sit-down interview.

If you want to see what's actually been deployed in Houston and beyond, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back than just watch the coverage roll in, our take-action page has concrete steps for engaging your local council or department.