Hold police officers accountable for misconduct, urges Brian Hofer, ED at Secure Justice #deflock

Our Take

Brian Hofer has spent years fighting surveillance overreach in the Bay Area, and his point at this Palo Alto forum cuts to the core of why DeFlock exists. It's not just that ALPR networks collect millions of plate scans on innocent people. It's that the officers and agencies pulling that data face almost no consequences when they misuse it, whether that's stalking an ex, running plates for a personal favor, or feeding a database that ICE or out-of-state prosecutors can query without a warrant. Mass surveillance tools and broken accountability systems are a dangerous combination, and Flock has handed police departments one of the most powerful tools yet with little oversight attached.

Hofer's framing matters because it shifts the debate away from "trust the police to use this responsibly" and toward "what happens when they don't." Departments routinely promise narrow use cases, then quietly expand searches, share data across jurisdictions, or stonewall public records requests when something goes wrong. Without real audits, public logs, and consequences for misuse, a camera network marketed as a tool against stolen cars and Amber Alerts becomes an unregulated tracking system for anyone's daily movements.

This is exactly why community control ordinances like the ACLU's CCOPS model exist, and why local pushback is the only real check right now. Check our map to see if Flock cameras are already watching your streets, and head to our take-action page if you want to push your city council to ask the hard questions before signing another contract.