Alexandria releases location of Flock cameras | NBC4 Washington

Our Take

Credit to NBC4 Washington for covering a story that should be the baseline everywhere, not a headline: a local government actually telling residents where its license plate readers are. For years, Flock Safety and the agencies that buy its cameras have treated camera placement like a trade secret, even though these devices are quietly logging the movements of every driver who passes by, innocent or not. Alexandria releasing this data is a small but real concession that the public has a right to know when and where it's being tracked.

But transparency about location is the floor, not the ceiling. Knowing where the cameras are doesn't tell you who can access the data, how long it's stored, which outside agencies or federal partners get pulled into the data-sharing network, or whether there's any real audit trail when someone misuses the system. Flock's own pitch to cities is built on exactly that kind of hub-and-spoke sharing, and most communities adopting it don't get anywhere close to Alexandria's level of disclosure. One city publishing a map doesn't change the fact that this technology is expanding nationwide with little independent oversight.

If you want to see how this looks beyond Alexandria, check our camera map to find Flock and other ALPR deployments near you, and visit take action for ways to push your own city council toward the same kind of disclosure — or better yet, toward rolling these systems back entirely.