Who Watches The Watchers? (DEFLOCK)

Our Take

This one's a little different for us — it's not a documentary or a news segment, it's a song. "Who Watches The Watchers? (DEFLOCK)" by Doc Lazarus, featuring Kelly Krueger, takes the old Juvenalian question — quis custodiet ipsos custodes — and points it straight at the automated license plate reader cameras popping up on streetlights and stop signs across the country. That the question is old doesn't make it less urgent; if anything, it's more relevant now that the "watchers" are networks of cameras run by a private company feeding data to thousands of police departments with little public oversight.

We're glad to see the DEFLOCK name and the broader pushback against Flock Safety showing up in art, not just op-eds and city council meetings. Protest songs have always been a way to put a human voice behind a bureaucratic threat, and mass ALPR surveillance is about as bureaucratic and faceless as it gets — a database quietly logging where you drive, when, and how often, usually without a warrant and without you ever knowing it happened. Culture catching up to that reality matters, because most people still have no idea these cameras exist on their own street.

Credit to Doc Lazarus and Kelly Krueger for putting the question in a format that sticks. If you want to find out whether there's a camera watching your commute, check our map, and if you're ready to do something about it, our take-action resources are a good place to start.