Flock Safety ALPR: Surveillance or Safety? #shorts

Our Take

STS Technologies LLC keeps it brief but gets at the core tension we talk about constantly: Flock Safety pitches its automated license plate readers as a public safety tool, but the cameras log every passing vehicle whether or not anyone's suspected of anything. That's the whole surveillance-or-safety debate in a nutshell — a dragnet marketed as a solution, with little public say in where the cameras go or how long the data sticks around.

We'll note the video is also a vehicle for the creator's own ALPR-awareness products, which is worth keeping in mind as you watch — but the underlying question they're raising is a real one, and it's the same question we push people to ask locally: who approved this camera, what's the retention policy, and who gets access to the data. If you want to see how dense this network already is near you, check our camera map.

Short-form videos like this one are doing real work just by putting Flock's name in front of people who've never heard of it. Awareness is step one; the next step is showing up to a city council meeting or filing a records request. Our take-action page has templates to help you do exactly that.