Get the Flock Out of Texas
The short version: Texas Civil Rights Project exposes how Johnson County deputies used Flock's nationwide camera network to track a woman traveling out of state for legal abortion care.
Our Take
This is the nightmare scenario privacy advocates have been warning about since Flock Safety started blanketing the country with automated license plate readers: a local sheriff's office reaching across state lines into Illinois — a state where abortion is legal — to track a woman's every move because she sought care that is perfectly legal to obtain. Texas Civil Rights Project deserves credit for digging this up and putting a human face on what's usually an abstract policy debate.
The Flock pitch has always been "find stolen cars and violent suspects." What actually happens is a searchable, interconnected surveillance web with almost no guardrails on who gets access, what they search for, or why. Once a deputy can query cameras thousands of miles away with no warrant and no real audit trail, the system becomes whatever the person behind the keyboard wants it to be — a tool for solving crimes, or a tool for punishing women for reproductive choices, chasing exes, or settling personal scores. Flock's own transparency reports can't tell you which one you're looking at.
This is exactly why we built our camera map — so people can see how far this network actually reaches into their own neighborhoods, not just their home state. If this story makes your stomach turn, don't just watch and move on. Check out our take-action page and push your local council to get these cameras out, or at least force real oversight before the next person gets tracked for doing something completely legal.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Texas Civil Rights Project, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.