Brendan Keefe: Must See: Flock Safety Calls Police on Reporter Brendan — Part 5/7

Our Take

Let that sink in: a company that built its entire business model on photographing every car that passes a given point, millions of times a day, without consent, called the cops because someone pointed a camera back at them. Brendan Keefe was standing on a public road, doing the most basic job of journalism, and Flock Safety's response was to summon law enforcement rather than answer a question. That's not an accident — it's a tell. A company this allergic to being watched has no business arguing it should be trusted to watch all of us.

The pattern here is bigger than one testy phone call. This is an industry that wants total access to the public's comings and goings while keeping its own installers, contracts, and law enforcement conferences off-limits to independent press. Barring a reporter from an industry conference and allegedly canceling his hotel reservation isn't just thin-skinned, it's revealing: transparency is for the surveilled, not the surveillors. If Flock's practices can't withstand a guy with a camera on a sidewalk, they certainly can't withstand real public oversight.

Credit to Brendan Keefe and Daily Beltway for actually showing up and filming what these installations look like in practice, since Flock would clearly prefer nobody did. If you want to see how many of these cameras have gone up near you, check our map, and if you're ready to push back on unaccountable ALPR networks in your own town, our take-action page has concrete next steps.