My remarks at #Visalia City Council 8/17/26 re: #Flock #ALPR access.
The short version: A Visalia resident's public comment on Flock ALPR access shows how local council meetings remain the front line for demanding transparency over license plate surveillance.
Our Take
Jim Reeves took the mic at Visalia City Council to push back on how the city's Flock Safety camera network is accessed and used — the kind of ordinary, unglamorous civic action that actually moves the needle on surveillance policy. We don't have the transcript, but the fact that a resident felt compelled to show up and speak on ALPR access at all tells you something: these systems are rolling out with far less public scrutiny than they deserve, and it often falls to individual citizens to force the conversation.
This is exactly how accountability starts. City councils rarely audit Flock contracts on their own initiative — they respond to pressure, records requests, and residents willing to sit through a meeting and ask uncomfortable questions about who can query the data, for what reasons, and with what oversight. Visalia joins a growing list of cities where that pressure is starting to build.
If you live near a Flock deployment, don't wait for someone else to ask the hard questions. Check our camera map to see what's tracking your area, and visit our take-action page for tools to bring this fight to your own council chambers.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Jim Reeves, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.