Flock camera misused by four officers
The short version: KRCG 13 reports four officers misused a Flock camera and that hackers pulled a unit and leaked its data to press, exposing how little oversight actually exists.
Our Take
Two scandals in one story: officers allegedly abusing access to a Flock camera, and someone unaffiliated managing to physically remove a unit and pull data out of it. Both point to the same root problem — these networks get sold to city councils as 'set it and forget it' safety tools, but nobody's actually watching the watchers. Credit to KRCG 13 for digging into this.
Departments love to say ALPR access is logged and audited, right up until a reporter asks to see those audit logs after a misuse complaint. Four officers reportedly treating a mass-surveillance database as their personal lookup tool isn't a glitch — it's the predictable outcome of handing cops a tool with weak guardrails and trusting them to police themselves. Meanwhile, the fact that a camera could be yanked and its contents exposed by outsiders should worry everyone, including the agencies that swear this data is locked down tight.
If there's a Flock camera near you, you deserve to know who's watching that feed and why. Check our map to see what's already been documented in your area, and hit up take action if you want to push your local council for real oversight instead of just taking the vendor's word for it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KRCG 13, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.