FBI Data Just Exposed Flock Cameras

Our Take

Flock Safety has built an entire sales pitch around the idea that its cameras are indispensable crime-fighting tools, but numbers are stubborn things. Silicon Cowboy's breakdown does something refreshingly simple: it puts the company's talking points next to actual FBI crime datasets and lets the gap speak for itself. When a network this large, this expensive, and this invasive can't clearly show its worth in the government's own numbers, that's not a minor discrepancy — it's a red flag for every city council currently rubber-stamping a new contract.

The '99% accuracy' line gets special attention in the video, and for good reason. That stat sounds impressive until you ask what it's actually measuring, and how even a small error rate translates into real people getting pulled over, detained, or worse, based on a bad plate match. Accuracy claims from the vendor selling the system are not the same as independent verification, and communities deserve better than marketing math standing in for evidence.

This is exactly the kind of scrutiny that's been missing from most local debates over ALPR deployments, where officials often accept vendor claims at face value. Credit to Silicon Cowboy for doing the legwork instead. If you want to see how far this network already reaches near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at the city council level, our take-action resources can help you get started.