Ex-Senator Caught on Flock Safety’s Payroll #shorts

Our Take

This is the part of the surveillance economy nobody puts on a glossy brochure: the revolving door. Tymanthefirst's short, building on reporting from Benn Jordan, flags that a former Minnesota state senator is now a managing partner at a firm paid to dig up "confidential leads" so Flock Safety can land police contracts. Translation — someone who used to write the rules is now paid to help a surveillance vendor route around public scrutiny and get its cameras bolted to poles in your town.

This matters because ALPR expansion rarely happens through open, informed debate. It happens through quiet city council votes, law enforcement grant paperwork, and now, apparently, ex-lawmakers working their old Rolodexes to grease the skids. When the people who once had oversight power start getting paid to help the industry they used to regulate, the public loses the ability to trust that any of this was ever about public safety and not about who can find the next contract fastest.

If legislators — current or former — are going to profit from pushing mass surveillance into your neighborhood, the least you can do is know it's there. Check our camera map to see what's already been installed near you, and head to take-action for tools to push back before the next contract gets signed.