Philadelphia City Council approves resolution urging state leaders to ban Flock cameras
The short version: Philadelphia's City Council voted to ask Pennsylvania lawmakers to ban or tightly regulate Flock's ALPR network, a symbolic but telling crack in Flock's expansion.
Our Take
Credit to 6abc Philadelphia for covering a move that's easy to overlook because it's "just" a resolution — no cameras get ripped out tomorrow, no ordinance changes hands. But symbolism matters here. When a city council representing over a million and a half residents formally tells Harrisburg that Flock's automatic license plate readers need a ban or serious guardrails, it's an admission that local leaders feel they don't have enough power on their own to rein in a system quietly blanketing their streets.
That's the real story in cities across the country: ALPR networks get installed through police department purchasing decisions and quiet council votes, often with little public debate about data retention, who can query the system, or how plate data gets shared with ICE, other agencies, or private databases. Philadelphia's resolution is an acknowledgment that this genie doesn't go back in the bottle easily, and that state-level law may be the only lever strong enough to force transparency or limits.
Watch the video, then check our map to see how many Flock cameras are already running in your own city, and visit take action for tools to push your council toward the same kind of scrutiny Philadelphia just demanded from the state.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 6abc Philadelphia, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.