What freedom do Americans think they have that they actually don’t?

Our Take

Credit to Magnetic Norse for catching Jeremy Todd's comments at the Libertarian National Convention in Grand Rapids. It's a good sign when the conversation about Flock Safety and automated license plate readers stops being a niche privacy-nerd issue and starts showing up in candidate stump speeches. Todd's basic point — that Americans believe they have a freedom from constant tracking that, in practice, no longer exists — is exactly the gap we've been documenting for years.

That gap is the whole story. Most people still picture surveillance as something that requires a warrant, a reason, a human being deciding to watch you. What's actually been built is a passive, always-on network of cameras logging every plate that passes, feeding databases that police, private companies, and sometimes other agencies with little oversight can query after the fact. No one voted on that system town by town; it arrived through vendor contracts and grant money, and most residents have no idea how many Flock units are clocking their daily commute.

It's refreshing to hear this framed as a freedom issue rather than a partisan one, because it genuinely isn't left or right — it's about whether local governments get to quietly outsource tracking of their own residents to a private surveillance vendor. If you want to see how dense this network already is near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at a city council meeting or public records request, our take-action page has the tools to start.