Anniston p d looking for someone on flock cameras inside of the bars

Our Take

Credit to Handicap News for catching this one — footage suggesting Anniston Police Department is leaning on Flock Safety cameras to track down an individual. The details in the clip are thin, but the pattern is familiar: a local department treats a network of license-plate cameras as a de facto manhunt tool, with little public explanation of the legal basis, the data retention policy, or who signs off on these searches.

That's the core problem with ALPR systems like Flock's — they weren't sold to the public as 'search anyone, anytime' infrastructure, yet that's effectively what they become once police departments get comfortable pulling footage for any investigation, big or small. Each use like this normalizes warrantless tracking of ordinary people's movements, stored and searchable long after the fact, with almost no outside oversight of how often it happens or why.

If you're in Alabama or anywhere else, check whether your town already has these cameras watching your commute on our camera map, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your city, our take-action page has concrete steps to get started.