ALPRs Are For Profit Companies That Sell Our Data
The short version: Orwell Day argues Flock's profit motive makes ALPRs inherently untrustworthy and calls for a total ban in Chandler, Arizona.
Our Take
Orwell Day cuts to the core of why ALPR 'safeguards' are mostly theater: Flock Safety isn't a public safety agency, it's a venture-backed company that has to keep selling cities on bigger, more invasive tools to stay profitable and keep investors happy. Every new feature — facial recognition add-ons, vehicle 'fingerprinting,' national data sharing — exists to make the product more attractive to the next department signing a contract, not because residents asked for it.
The Chandler push for a total ban is worth watching closely. Most municipal fights over ALPRs end in half-measures: a data retention policy here, an audit requirement there. Those tweaks don't change the underlying business model, which depends on hoovering up as many plate scans as possible and keeping that data flowing through a private company's servers, outside the control of the communities being surveilled.
If you want to see whether this kind of network has already rolled into your neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back the way Chandler residents are, 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 Orwell Day, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.