Flock Cameras Are in Boulder, CO — Public Safety or Too Much Surveillance?

Our Take

Credit where it's due: Eric Sells Boulder isn't a surveillance reporter, he's a real estate guy — and the fact that Flock cameras have become relevant enough to factor into his pitch to homebuyers tells you something about how deeply this technology has embedded itself into everyday American life. When license plate readers are showing up in "things to know before you move here" content, the mass surveillance conversation has officially left the activist fringe and entered the mainstream.

The framing in the video — safety versus privacy — is the same false binary Flock Safety and its police department partners lean on in every city council meeting. What usually gets left out is the harder question: who actually has access to Boulder's plate data, how long is it retained, and does it get shared outside city lines through Flock's national network? Colorado has no shortage of neighboring jurisdictions plugged into the same system, and "local" data rarely stays local once it's in the cloud.

If you're in Boulder and want to see exactly where these cameras are watching, check our camera map. And if you'd rather not just watch the debate play out on YouTube, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level.