Flock Cameras: Washington Post investigation finds police abused access
The short version: A Washington Post investigation found at least 69 police officials misused Flock's ALPR network, often only caught after victims or journalists blew the whistle.
Our Take
Give LiveNOW from FOX and Anna Marsick credit for putting a number on what we've been warning about for years: this isn't hypothetical abuse, it's documented. The Washington Post's Douglas MacMillan found at least 69 police officials accused, charged, or convicted of misusing Flock or other license-plate readers, and in 15 of those cases it wasn't internal audits that caught it — it was outsiders. Victims, activists, journalists. That's the tell. A surveillance system that only gets checked when someone outside the building notices something is a system with no real oversight at all.
Flock loves to sell itself on 'audit trails' and 'accountability,' but an audit trail is worthless if nobody's actually looking at it until a reporter starts asking questions. Departments have repeatedly said they were 'unaware' of the activity happening on their own systems. That's not a bug, that's the business model — deploy first, ask permission never, and let local agencies figure out policy after thousands of cameras are already scanning every plate that drives by.
This is exactly why we track where these cameras are going up in the first place. Check our camera map to see what's near you, and if you want to push back on unchecked deployment in your own town, our take-action page has the tools to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of LiveNOW from FOX, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.