Neighbors, police departments eye Flock camera transparency changes | WSOC-TV
The short version: WSOC-TV9 reports Flock is rolling out 'transparency' tweaks after Charlotte-area misuse and arrests exposed how easily ALPR data gets abused.
Our Take
Credit to WSOCTV9 for digging into this one locally — when a surveillance vendor only starts talking about 'transparency changes' after a string of misuse incidents and arrests tied to its own technology, that's not proactive reform, that's damage control. Flock's business model depends on police departments and homeowners associations trusting that this data stream stays locked down. Every time it doesn't, the company's response is more PR than policy.
The real issue isn't a settings menu. It's that thousands of these cameras are already logging every car that passes, feeding a searchable database that can be queried by officers with little oversight and, as this report shows, sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with public safety. 'Transparency' features bolted on after the fact don't undo the fact that the infrastructure for mass tracking is already built and spreading into neighborhoods that never had a real say in it.
If you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your block, check our map, and if you'd rather not wait for the next misuse scandal to make the news, our take-action page has steps for pushing back before it happens in your town.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSOCTV9, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.