Did Anyone Actually Ask the Public About Flock Cameras?

Our Take

Derrick Evans puts his finger on something we hear from readers constantly: Flock Safety's ALPR network tends to expand through staff reports, closed-door vendor demos, and consent agenda items, not through genuine public debate. By the time most residents learn their town is "piloting" a system, the cameras are often already bolted to poles. That's not an accident — it's how the sales process is designed to work, moving fast before opposition can organize.

The pattern matters because license plate readers aren't a neutral traffic tool. They log the movements of every driver, innocent or not, and feed that data into regional and sometimes national sharing networks that most city councils never fully explain to the people who voted them in. A "public safety" purchase decided in a ten-minute meeting shouldn't carry the weight of a permanent surveillance infrastructure that outlives the officials who approved it.

If you want to see whether this is already happening where you live, check our camera map to find documented Flock locations near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push your local government toward an actual public process — public comment, published contracts, audit requirements — before the next camera goes up. Credit to Derrick Evans for raising the question so many councils would rather skip.