Washington, DeFlock

Our Take

The Minutemen Report's take on Washington's growing network of Flock Safety cameras leans hard into the founding-fathers framing, and we get why. When a technology lets police and private companies log every car that passes a given point, build a searchable history of where you've been, and share that data across jurisdictions with little public oversight, it's fair to ask whether that's the country George Washington and company had in mind. We can't verify every specific claim in the video, but the broader point tracks with what we've documented for months: these systems expand quietly, state by state, with minimal debate before city councils sign the contracts.

What makes Washington worth watching is the same thing that makes every state worth watching — once the cameras go up, they rarely come down, and the data they generate tends to outlive whatever narrow justification got them approved in the first place. Credit to The Minutemen Report for putting a spotlight on this in a state that doesn't always get the scrutiny that Texas or Georgia do. Mass surveillance infrastructure doesn't care about political lean; it spreads wherever there's budget and little resistance.

If you want to see what's already been deployed near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back at the local level, our take-action page has concrete steps for engaging your city council before the next contract gets rubber-stamped.