WJCL Editorial: Flock cameras can work, with absolute transparency

Our Take

Credit to WJCL News for at least putting Flock Safety on the editorial page in Georgia, where these cameras have spread onto corridor after corridor with barely a public vote. But "can work, with absolute transparency" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline. Transparency is necessary, sure — audit logs, public dashboards, access policies — but it's not sufficient. A camera network that photographs every plate on every car, cross-references it against government and sometimes private databases, and retains that data for weeks is a surveillance system first and a crime-fighting tool second, no matter how clean the paperwork looks.

The real questions WJCL's board gestures at but doesn't quite land on: who gets audit access besides the police department that bought the cameras, what happens when ICE or an out-of-state agency runs a search through Flock's network, and whether "transparency" ever includes the option for a city council to just say no. Disclosure policies have a way of reading great in a press release and meaning nothing when a records request actually goes in.

If you're in Georgia or anywhere else wondering whether your town has quietly signed up, check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and if you want to push your council toward real limits — not just promises of transparency — our take-action page has the tools to start that fight.