These Cameras Are Tracking Your License Plate. FLOCK CAMERAS EVERYWHERE
The short version: The Ectoplasm Show puts Flock's ALPR cameras under the microscope, and it's another reminder that this surveillance net is bigger and less scrutinized than most Americans realize.
Our Take
Credit to The Ectoplasm Show for doing what too few local newscasts bother to do: actually asking what these Flock cameras are collecting and who gets to see it. That question — who has access — is the whole ballgame. Flock markets itself to small-town police departments and HOAs alike, but once a plate read lands in the system, it can be shared across a nationwide network of agencies with wildly different rules about warrants, retention, and oversight. Most residents have no idea a camera on their own street is quietly logging every car that passes, timestamped and searchable.
This is exactly why we keep beating this drum: mass ALPR deployment didn't happen because voters asked for it. It happened through quiet vendor pitches, budget line items, and mission creep, with almost no public debate about whether a permanent, retroactive record of everyone's movements is something a free society should tolerate. A single video can't cover every angle, but it's a good entry point for people who've never thought about the camera bolted to a pole at their intersection.
If this video has you wondering whether Flock has already rolled into your neighborhood, check our camera map to see what's nearby, and head to our take-action page for concrete steps to push back at the city council level.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Ectoplasm Show, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.