Flock Attempts to Get Uber Dashcam Videos
The short version: A new interview suggests Flock's ALPR network may be expanding beyond fixed cameras into patrol robots and hundreds of thousands of dashcams.
Our Take
Flock Safety built its brand on fixed cameras bolted to poles, but if the records Jason Hunyar describes in this Business Reform interview hold up, the company's ambitions don't stop at stationary hardware. The idea of camera-equipped robotic "dogs" from Undaunted potentially feeding into Flock's system, combined with talk of tapping into a reported 350,000+ dashcams from Nexar (used by Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers), points toward a surveillance network that moves with the population instead of just watching intersections.
We want to be careful here: this is one journalist's account of documents obtained from the Georgia Attorney General's Office, not a confirmed Flock product rollout. But the direction of travel matters more than any single deal. Flock has spent years normalizing plate-reading cameras as neutral community safety tools. If that same company is now exploring mobile robots and gig-economy dashcams as data sources, the practical effect is a surveillance dragnet that follows people through neighborhoods, sidewalks, and rideshares — with far less public debate than a city council vote on a fixed camera ever gets.
Credit to Hunyar for pulling these records into the light; this is exactly the kind of reporting that keeps companies like Flock from operating in the dark. If you want to see what's already deployed near you, check our camera map, and if your city is considering new Flock contracts or partnerships, our take-action page has tools to push back before mobile surveillance becomes the next quiet default.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Business Reform, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.