Flock Made a Fake PD and Searched "Star of David", "Don't Tread on Me Flag" & More

Our Take

If this reporting from Verified Privacy VPN holds up, it's about as damning as it gets. A fake agency isn't a glitch or an edge case — it's a workaround. It suggests Flock built a way to query its nationwide camera network without the accountability trail that's supposed to come with real police oversight, audit logs, and public records requests. That's the whole ballgame for a surveillance company: the only thing standing between 'useful tool for cops' and 'unaccountable search engine for anyone's face, flag, or symbol' is the paperwork trail, and this video alleges Flock found a way around it.

The specific search terms matter too. Running AI queries for things like a Star of David or a 'Don't Tread on Me' flag isn't license plate reading — it's pattern-matching on political and religious symbols, images, and ideas. That's the exact mission creep critics have been warning about since these networks went up: cameras sold as a tool to find stolen cars quietly becoming a tool to track who's driving around with what sticker on their bumper. A phantom PD with no real jurisdiction and no real transparency obligations is the perfect vehicle for that kind of creep, because nobody outside the company can ask who typed the query or why.

Credit to Verified Privacy VPN for digging this up — it's exactly the kind of outside scrutiny this industry keeps proving it needs. If you want to know whether a Flock camera is already watching your street, check our map, and if you want to push back on these systems in your own town, our take-action page has concrete steps.