This city trusted Flock. Now residents are sounding the alarm | Trailer

Our Take

Credit to AJC producer Fraser Jones for turning a local reporting rabbit hole into something bigger: a look at what happens after a city says yes to Flock Safety and then has to live with it. Atlanta's reputation as one of the most camera-saturated cities in the country isn't new, but watching residents and officials start to second-guess that bargain in real time is exactly the kind of accountability journalism this issue needs.

This is the pattern we track constantly at DeFlock USA — a city adopts ALPR cameras promising stolen cars and Amber Alerts, and only later do residents learn how the data is stored, who can query it, and how little oversight exists once the hardware is bolted to a pole. Trailers like this one matter because they signal that mainstream outlets are finally asking the follow-up questions: not just 'does it work,' but 'at what cost to privacy, and who's watching the watchers.'

If Atlanta's experience sounds familiar, it's because it's playing out in thousands of towns right now. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR expansion in your own community, our take-action page has concrete steps to start.