Americans Don't Know They're Being Tracked By These Cameras – Flock Safety Sparks Nationwide Outrage

Our Take

When the New York Post — not exactly a niche privacy outlet — runs a segment titled "Americans Don't Know They're Being Tracked By These Cameras," it's a sign this story has broken out of the activist bubble and into the mainstream. Credit to the Post's team for putting a national spotlight on Flock Safety and for flagging the federal bill aimed at cutting off funding to police departments that deploy these systems. That's real legislative traction, and it matters.

What the video captures well is the disconnect: these cameras aren't parked outside a bank or a courthouse, they're bolted to utility poles on residential streets, silently logging every plate that rolls by, building a searchable history of where you've been regardless of whether you're suspected of anything. That's the core problem DeFlock has been hammering on since day one — this isn't targeted policing, it's mass logging of innocent people's movements, sold to towns as a crime-fighting tool while the actual retention, sharing, and access policies stay murky at best.

The "online movements dedicated to destroying the technology" the video mentions aren't some fringe curiosity — they're a symptom of communities realizing they were never asked if they wanted to be tracked this way. If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR cameras have already gone up in your neighborhood, check our map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just find out, our take-action page has the tools to push back at the local level.