Appleton won't use Flock cameras anymore
The short version: Appleton's reported break from Flock Safety shows local pushback can actually win against the creeping normalization of ALPR surveillance.
Our Take
WFRV Local 5 reports that Appleton has decided to stop using Flock Safety's license plate readers — a rare instance of a city actually walking back automated surveillance instead of expanding it. We don't have the full internal reasoning here, but any time a municipality pumps the brakes on a system that quietly logs every car that passes, it's worth paying attention to.
Flock's pitch is always the same: these cameras just catch bad guys. What rarely gets mentioned in the sales deck is that every plate scanned, matched or not, gets stored, shared across a nationwide network, and queried by agencies with little public oversight. When a city like Appleton pulls out, it's a reminder that these contracts aren't permanent fixtures — they're policy choices that elected officials and residents can reverse once the tradeoffs become clear.
Credit to WFRV Local 5 for covering this. If you want to see how far this network already reaches in your own community, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city follow Appleton's lead than expand its own ALPR footprint, our take-action page has concrete steps to push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WFRV Local 5, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.