FBI Director Kash Patel says THIS is why Flock cameras are important for public safety

Our Take

Credit to Mid-Michigan NOW on FOX66 & NBC25 for getting the clip, but let's be clear about what's happening here: the head of the FBI is doing PR for a private surveillance vendor. When Kash Patel stands up and says Flock cameras are "why" public safety works, that's not a neutral technical assessment — it's the federal government putting its thumb on the scale for a company whose business model depends on local police departments buying more cameras and more data-sharing agreements.

That matters because Flock's whole pitch to small-town councils has always been "just local plates, just local crime." A sitting FBI Director publicly cheerleading the network undercuts that framing and confirms what we've been saying for a while: these camera systems don't stay local. Data flows upward, agencies share access across jurisdictions, and now apparently it flows all the way to Washington's talking points. Local officials who approved these systems under a narrow, community-safety pretext should be asking hard questions about who else is watching, querying, and benefiting from their town's plate data.

None of this changes the basic facts on the ground: these cameras log every car that passes, whether or not anyone is suspected of anything, and most residents have no idea their movements are being cataloged. Check our map to see if Flock has already rolled into your area, and if you want to push back at a city council meeting, our take-action page has what you need to get started.