Flock camera sabotage grows amid privacy concerns
The short version: CBS Evening News reports that a growing number of cities are disconnecting Flock ALPR cameras as residents and officials push back over surveillance concerns.
Our Take
When national network news picks up a story that's been simmering in city council meetings and neighborhood Facebook groups for months, you know something's shifting. CBS's Jason Allen is documenting what we've been tracking all along: communities that installed these cameras with promises of catching stolen cars and violent offenders are now discovering just how much data is being vacuumed up on every single driver who passes by, guilty or not.
Unplugging a camera is a blunt instrument, but it sends a message that quiet policy memos never do. It's what happens when residents realize they were never given a real vote on whether a private company should get a permanent, searchable record of their daily movements. The pattern is consistent nationwide: quiet installation, minimal public input, then backlash once people connect the dots between "traffic safety" and a database that can be queried by federal agencies, out-of-state police, or anyone with access credentials and bad intentions.
This kind of grassroots pushback works, but it works better when it's organized rather than reactive. Check our map to see if Flock has quietly rolled into your town, and if it has, head to our take-action page for the tools to get it in front of your city council before it becomes just another camera nobody remembers voting for.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS Evening News, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.