Bend residents pack City Council chambers to oppose Flock surveillance cameras
The short version: Bend residents showed up in force to tell their city council they don't want Flock ALPRs watching their streets, and that pushback is exactly how these programs get stopped.
Our Take
Credit to KTVZ News for capturing what a packed council chamber looks like when a community actually gets a say before Flock cameras go up rather than after. That's rarer than it should be — most cities quietly sign a vendor contract and residents find out only when they spot a camera bolted to a pole. Bend doing this in the open, with public comment on the record, is the process working the way it's supposed to.
The specifics of what residents said will matter more than the fact that they showed up, but the pattern across the country is consistent: people don't love learning their daily movements get logged into a searchable database that police departments elsewhere have already misused, shared without oversight, or left vulnerable to breaches. Local officials keep pitching Flock as a narrow tool for stolen cars and Amber Alerts, and residents keep asking why that requires reading every plate that passes, every day, indefinitely.
If you're in Bend or anywhere else watching a similar fight unfold, don't wait for the vote. Check our map to see what's already been deployed near you, and use our take-action resources to figure out how to get in front of your own council before the cameras go up instead of after.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KTVZ News, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.