Finding Flock Cameras w. Double the Power #flock #esp32 #electronics #surveillancecameras
The short version: A maker named deamonmist is souping up an ESP32-based rig to detect Flock Safety ALPR cameras, and that kind of open-source counter-surveillance tinkering matters.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: deamonmist is doing the unglamorous work of building tools so ordinary people can find out where Flock Safety cameras are watching them, rather than taking it on faith from a city council presentation or a police department press release. An ESP32 rig tuned to sniff out these devices is the kind of grassroots hardware project that puts detection capability in the hands of regular citizens instead of leaving it exclusively with the companies selling the cameras and the agencies buying them.
We don't know the full technical details here — the title promises "double the power," and we'll take that at face value until there's more to go on — but the broader point stands regardless of this specific build's performance. Flock's ALPR network has expanded into thousands of communities with little public debate about retention policies, data sharing, or who gets access to the trail of your movements. Projects like this chip away at the information asymmetry between surveilled and surveillor.
If you want to see what's already been documented in your area, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back on a camera going up down your street than just detect the ones already there, our take-action page has concrete steps for getting involved locally.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of deamonmist, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.