Cheektowaga flock camera investigation
The short version: WGRZ-TV reports three Cheektowaga employees were suspended for allegedly misusing Flock ALPR cameras to track a coworker's vehicle.
Our Take
This is exactly the scenario critics of license plate readers have been warning about for years: give people a powerful tracking tool and sooner or later someone uses it to surveil a coworker, an ex, or a neighbor instead of chasing down a stolen car. WGRZ-TV's reporting on Cheektowaga deserves credit for pushing this story into the open, because these abuse cases rarely surface unless a local newsroom digs for them.
Flock Safety and police departments love to pitch these networks as narrowly focused on public safety, but the data doesn't know the difference between a warrant and a grudge. Once a camera logs your plate, that record sits in a database that's only as trustworthy as the people with login access — and this case shows how thin that safeguard really is.
If you want to know whether a Flock camera is watching your commute, check our camera map, and if you think your town needs more oversight before it signs another ALPR contract, our take-action page has tools to push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WGRZ-TV, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.