FLOCK read billions of license plates/build a profile on your location. it's not just cops sharing.
The short version: A local creator's dig into Flock's data-sharing confirms what we've warned about: your plate reads don't stay with your local cops.
Our Take
Credit to Sanford Sitdown for doing the legwork here. The headline number — billions of plate reads — is the part that grabs you, but the real story is what happens to those reads after the camera snaps the photo. Flock's pitch has always been "local police, local problem," but the network effect is the whole business model. Once your plate hits one node, it can ripple out to agencies you've never heard of, in states you've never visited, under data-sharing agreements most city councils never debated in public.
That's the part residents keep getting wrong when they approve these cameras at a council meeting: they're not voting for a single camera watching a single intersection. They're voting to plug their town into a national location-tracking grid that logs where you go, when, and how often — searchable by any agency with access, for reasons that don't have to clear a warrant. "Sharing" sounds cooperative until you realize nobody asked permission, and nobody's auditing who's actually looking.
If this is news to you, it shouldn't be — and that's exactly why we keep beating this drum. Check our map to see what's already watching your block, and head to take-action if you want to push back before your city signs the next contract.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Sanford Sitdown, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.