Video: Calarco on Flock license plate readers
The short version: A local councilor's comments on Auburn's Flock camera program, via The Citizen Newspaper, show how these fights are playing out block by block, not just in D.C.
Our Take
Credit to The Citizen Newspaper for putting a local official on record about Flock Safety's license plate readers in Auburn. This is exactly the kind of granular, city-council-level reporting that matters most right now — the real decisions about where these cameras go, what data gets shared, and who can access it are made in rooms like this one, not in congressional hearings.
We don't know yet whether Councilor Calarco's comments signal pushback, full-throated support, or something in between, and we're not going to put words in her mouth. What we do know is that every city adopting Flock tech deserves this level of scrutiny: public comment periods, documented vendor contracts, retention policy disclosures, and a clear answer to who outside the department can query the system. If Auburn residents want to know whether their own plates are already being logged, our camera map is a good starting point.
Local journalism asking local questions is how communities catch bad surveillance contracts before they calcify into permanent infrastructure. If you want to push your own city council to ask the same hard questions Auburn is wrestling with, our take-action page has the tools to get started.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Citizen Newspaper, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.