What the FLOCK?
The short version: A protest song turns Flock Safety's ALPR network into dark Americana satire, proving surveillance fatigue has gone folk.
Our Take
Creator C C's "What the FLOCK?" does something we don't see enough of: it makes mass surveillance feel like a lived American experience instead of a policy footnote. Wrapping the creep of automated license plate readers in a darkly funny Americana protest song is a clever move — this is a topic that tends to get buried in local council minutes and vendor press releases, and music has a way of cutting through that noise and landing in your gut instead of your inbox.
The joke lands because the truth underneath it isn't funny at all. Flock Safety cameras have quietly multiplied on street corners, HOA entrances, and small-town intersections across the country, building a rolling database of where you drive, when, and how often — all without a warrant, and often without residents ever voting on it. A song can't replace public records requests or city council testimony, but it does something those tools can't: it makes the absurdity of a camera on every block emotionally legible to people who've never thought twice about that black box bolted to a pole.
We're glad to see artists picking up this fight alongside researchers and local activists. If this track has you looking twice at the poles in your own neighborhood, check our map to see what's already been logged near you, and visit our take-action page if you're ready to push back where you live.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of C C, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.